


Shifting Tides

by AuguralSanguinary



Series: What if... [1]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bal isn't endgame, F/M, Mal is a raging Lesbian, Relationship tags will be added as chapters are posted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 13:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 46,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19252453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuguralSanguinary/pseuds/AuguralSanguinary
Summary: “Who are their parents?”“Ursula, Captain Hook,” Ben swallows before saying, in one breath, “Gaston and Maleficent.”Ben chooses Uma, Harry, Gil and Mal to come to Auradon and the tides shift with the change.





	1. Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> This hasn't been beta'd, so all mistakes you see are mine and mine alone. If you see any feel free to point them out, I will not take offence if you nitpick the work and just comment when all my writing errors are.
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy the story!
> 
> Updates should be every Tuesday  
> If I manage to remember the date- if there's no tuesday update, comment 'It's Tuesday' and I'll update it then.
> 
> Also, none of the ships are really at the forefront of the story, so if you're looking for a super shippy fic, this isn't it. (In my opinion none of the ships are at the forefront, I might be wrong.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Captain Hook I use in this story (he only appears in this Chapter) is from Once Upon a Time. NGL, he's the Captain Hook I know best, also I use Emma Swan from OUAT. 
> 
> So, not OC or the original CH if you don't know/aren't a fan of OUAT.

_-Beast Castle, Auradon-_

“Mom, dad I’ve chosen my first official proclamation,” Ben announced, making the humorous mood in the room turn serious. “I’ve decided that the children on the Isle of the Lost be given a chance to live here in Auradon,” Ben says, much to his parents' shock. Despite that, Ben steps off of the tailoring podium towards his parents. “Every time I look out to the island, I feel like they’ve been abandoned.”

“The children of our enemies? Living here among us?” His father was anything less than pleased.

“We’d start with only a few at first. Only the ones who need our help the most.” Ben says, trying to placate his father, “I’ve already chosen them.”

“Have you?” Adam asks, taking a couple of steps toward Ben, looking as intimidating as he did as a beast, however, Belle stops him before he gets far.

“I gave you a second chance.” She scolds, before turning to her son. “Who are their parents?”

“Ursula, Captain Hook,” Ben swallows before saying, in one breath, “Gaston and Maleficent.” He could tell that his parents weren’t entirely sure which to be more outraged about. The evilest villain in all the land, or the man that tried to kill Adam. Ben takes their deliberation as time to tell them more, “Dad, their children are innocent. They don’t deserve to be punished for their parent’s crimes.”

“I,” Adam starts after a pregnant silence and sighs in defeat, “suppose the children are innocent.” With that, the King leaves the room. Belle walks toward her son and places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Good job.” She says before following her husband.

_-Jolly Roger, Isle of The Lost-_

“Harry! Uma!” Emma called out walking around the Jolly Roger trying to find the children.

“What do you want, mum?” Harry calls out and Emma peers over the side of the ship to find her son hooked (literally) to the netting and Uma swimming in the croc-infested waters.

“Get up here. Both of you. I have some exciting news!” Emma calls, a big smile covering her face. While an abnormal sight on the Isle in general, it wasn’t on the Jolly Roger. It wasn’t rare to see Captain Hook’s wife smiling brightly at her children, her husband, or any number of things. Most that didn’t know her that well didn’t know why she was on the Isle, or why she was married to a man like Captain Hook.

“What is this exciting news darling?” Killian asks, coming up beside his wife as Harry and Uma climb up the side of the ship.

“I’ll tell you with the children,” Emma says, and Killian leans forward, giving his wife a loving kiss.

“Gross. What’d you want to tell us?” Uma asks, scrunching up her face at the PDA Captain Hook and Emma were doing.

“You two, along with two others on the Isle, have been accepted into a new school, in Auradon!” 

“Fuck no.”

“Uma. Think about it, you’ll be free, no more working for your mother 24/7, no more going hungry, no more fearing for your life. You’ll be able to do magic!” Emma says, “It’ll be different, but it’ll be a good different.”

“Why me? Why not Calista? Or Harriet?” Harry asks as Uma is debating with herself whether going to Auradon would be a good idea.

“Well, 1, your sisters don’t get along with Uma, and she’s the only other one I know is going. 2, She says she’ll only go if Freddie goes, otherwise, she’s staying on the Isle. And Harriet is out of the age range that was attached to the letter.” Emma says, handing said letter over to Harry, who read it immediately.

_Dear Captain Hook,_

_Congratulations! Your child has been selected to be one of the first Villain Kids in Auradon. Three other’s will be selected and brought to Auradon. Please inform your son/daughter about this amazing opportunity and we hope to see them at 1 pm sharp in the square for pick up, packed and ready to be a Hero!_

_If you have multiple children, please send the one you would think is best. If you have a hard time deciding, ask yourself these questions; ‘Who wants to be good?’ ‘Who will benefit most from Auradon?’ ‘Who will appreciate this opportunity the most?’. If that does not help, it would be preferable for the child to be around 14-17 years of age so they can attend Auradon Preparatory with the Future King Benjamin!_

_Sincerely  
The Royal Advisors of Auradon. _

“Neither of us want to be good,” Harry says, handing the letter that Uma had read over his shoulder back to his mom.

__

“Calista wants to kill the king and take over Auradon if we send her there without Freddie. But you don’t have to go Harry. If you don’t want to go, don’t. Calista has made up her mind, Harriet isn’t talking to us. Do what you think is best Harry. That’s all we want for you.” Emma says, taking the letter back.

__

“Why do you have the letter if it was addressed to me?” Killian asks.

__

“I was talking with Ursula when they delivered Uma’s and the guard asks for directions to the Jolly Roger, Ursula told them to just give it to me since I was your wife. Speaking of, your mother doesn’t really want you to go Uma. But, she said if you really want to go that you should have this.” Emma says and hands over a small package, which Uma takes suspiciously.

__

“I’m, gonna go pack,” Uma mumbles before dashing off the ship.

__

“I’ll go pack too,” Hary grumbles, if Uma was going, he was going. He was not about to leave his Captain.

__

“Already done. I also added a couple of things, just presents from your parents.” Emma says with a sunny smile. 

__

“Ye knew ye just needed to convince Uma, didn’t ye?” 

__

“A good pirate would never abandon their Captain,” Killian says with a small smile.

__

“Whatever dad,” Harry grumbled before heading below deck.

__

_-Gaston’s House, Isle of the Lost-_

__

“Hey, mom? Where’s the red thread?” Gil called out from the main room where he was stitching up one of his brother’s shirts or trying to. Said brother, and the other and Gaston were out hunting at the moment so it was only Gil and his mom in the house. When there was no response from his mom, Gil got up and started looking for her, “Mom?” He calls as he wandered around until he found her upstairs on his bed. “Mom? Why are you in my room? Wait where’s all my stuff?” Gil did a double take, looking around him, all his stuff was gone. There were two bags at his mother’s feet, though.

__

“I’m sending you to Auradon. You’ve been selected to go with three other children. Isn’t that exciting?” She says, with a small smile, genuinely happy for her son.

__

“What about Junes and GT?” Gil asks, concerned about his brothers.

__

“They weren’t selected. Just you. I’m sure you’ll be happy there, you’ve always been too good for this place. I’m so happy for you, and I’ll miss you dearly, darling.” His mother says standing up and giving Gil a hug. Just as she had the front door slammed shut, announcing the arrival of Gaston, Gaston Jr. and Gaston the Third. “Let’s go tell your father.” She says, handing him the bags that contained all his things. Gil took them, putting one of his bags on his back and carrying the other in his hand as he followed his mother downstairs. “Love, I have exciting news!”

__

“Is it what’s for dinner?” Gaston asks as he sees his wife.

__

“I presume the dead thing Junior is carrying is for supper. But, it’s more exciting than that! Gil has been chosen to go to Auradon!”

__

“Auradon?!”

__

“Yes, he has to leave soon though. So, is there anything you want to say?”

__

“Say hi to Belle for me.” Is all Gaston says to his son before trecking into the main room.

__

“He loves you. You’ll need to go to the square and wait, okay?” Gil’s mother told him softly, to which the blonde just nodded and left the house he would never return to, still a bit confused about the whole thing.

__

_-Bargain Castle, Isle of the Lost-_

__

“I’m not going if they’re not also going.” Mal was heavily protesting what her mom wanted her to do. She wasn’t going to go to Auradon without Evie, Jay and Carlos. 

__

“Yes, you are. You will go and you will get me that wand, then you can reunite with your gang. It’s a short time away to rule for an eternity.”Maleficent says, “You’re friends there as well, maybe as Heralds” she adds, almost as an afterthought.

__

“No. I won’t.” Mal says right before her mother initiates a faery starring contest that Mal inevitably loses. 

__

“I win. You’re going.” Maleficent says and walks toward the Evil Queen, “Queenie, book me.” She orders and the Evil Queen gets up and opens the fridge to retrieve Maleficent’s spell book. Maleficent took it and beckoned Mal over. “Now it won’t work here, but it will in Auradon. Use it to do whatever you have to to get me that wand.” Maleficent orders before handing the book over to Mal.

__

“Yes Mother,” Mal says taking the book.

__

“Good, now go pack. Times ticking away.”

__

Mal goes into her room and starts shoving her stuff in a couple of bags, all the clothes and trinkets she would want. After a couple of minutes, Evie came into her room. 

__

“Hey M.” Evie says walking up, holding a bag. “I just wanted to give you this stuff, you know, in case you need to seduce some boys,” Evie says handing over the small makeup bag.

__

“Thanks, E.” Mal says, taking the bag and putting it into one of her bags. “I can’t believe I have to leave you guys.”

__

“Don’t worry. Get that wand and we’ll be back together before you know it.” Evie says, pulling Mal close into a one arm hug. Mal leans into the hug for a minute before going back to packing.

__

__

_-Square, Isle of the Lost-_

__

“Harry!” Gil calls and immediately runs over to his friend, who was waiting with Uma, “You guys get chosen too?” 

__

“Aye,” Harry says, his attention not on Gil but the crowd around them.

__

“We don’t really know each other, I’m Gil.” Gil introduces himself to Uma.

__

“Uma.Displeasure to meet you.” Uma says, dryly with a neutral look.

__

“Yeah, Shrimpy,” Gil says and several things happen very quickly. Harry’s attention was immediately on Gil, a hook was at his neck, a blade was also at his neck, and Uma’s expression had turned into a deadly glare Gil was pretty sure it could kill him without the dagger at his neck.

__

“Do. Not. Call. Me. Shrimpy.” Uma orders.

__

“Yes, ma'am.” Gil squeaked in terror.

__

“Cars approaching, Captain,” Harry says, pulling his hook away from Gil’s throat, Uma followed a couple of seconds later.

__

“You’re a Captain?” Gil asks.

__

“Got a problem?” Uma nearly growls.

__

“No, can I call you Captain?” Gil asks, earning a glare from Uma that was subtly confused.

__

“Why?”

__

“If Harry’s willing to follow you as his Captain, you must be a fantastic Captain. So I’d like to follow you too.” Gil says as the car stops right by them. Uma doesn’t respond and a man gets out of the front of the limo, walking to the back to pop the trunk.

__

“Put your bags in there.” He orders and the three follow the order slowly. The man then opens the back door and goes to wait at the front of the car. Uma stops in front of the open door and turns to face Gil. 

__

“Harry’s first mate, you can be second.” She says before getting in the car, Harry following soon after with Gil coming in third, a goofy smile plastered on his face.

__

None of them noticed Mal walking out of Bargain Castle toward the Limo. The man in a suit walked toward the back of the car when he saw the fourth child. He waited until she put her bags into the trunk before closing it and gesturing toward the open door. Mal walked with her head held high and got into the car without fanfare. She sits at the back, facing Uma and her crew at the other end of the limo.

__

“Hey Shrimpy,” Mal says, putting on a tough facade. Uma fumed and glared at the other girl.

__

“You shouldn’t call her shrimpy.” Gil inputs sitting on the side seat of the limo, Harry was splayed out on the seat beside Uma, half on the ground, but was glaring death at Mal.

__

“Why not? She still stinks of it.” Mal sneers

__

“She doesn’t like it. You shouldn’t do something that others don’t like.” Gil says as though it was obvious

__

“What sort of villain are you?” Mal sneers. Uma rolls her eyes and decides to ignore the purple haired girl, choosing instead to fiddle with a button she had found by her seat pushing it and lowering the screen between them and the driver.

__

“Cool,” Gil says, leaning forward to look at the man in the suit. Uma glanced at the front of the car but decided it wasn’t interesting, choosing instead to look out the windows on the side of the car. Of course, she still had Mal in her sights. So she saw the look of panic flash across Mal’s face. “We’re going off the bridge!” Gil shouts, which makes the reason for Mal’s panic obvious to Uma. The girl still can’t swim.

__

“We’ll swim out, don’t scream,” Uma says, rolling down one of the windows by her.

__

“I wasn’t screaming,” Gil says, almost pouting.

__

“Ye were certainly loud,” Harry says he hadn’t moved from his laid back position at all. Mal relaxed a fraction which caused Uma to look out the window and see the gold dust all around her.

__

“Oh my god. It’s magic.” Uma mutters to herself, entranced by the magic all around her.

__

“So we won’t be going for a swim after all,” Harry says as Gil gets entranced by the magic outside as well. Harry glares at Mal in the back seat. Mal steadily ignores the very severe death glare Harry was giving her. Mal had to fight to make sure her features didn’t give away just how amazed she was with the magic all around them. She finally felt whole, as though a piece of her that had been missing all her life finally joined with the others. She wondered if Uma felt the same, magic was very important to Ursula. Mal didn’t know if Ursula was a magical being like Maleficent was, but she wondered. 

__

_-Auradon-_

__

The limo ride felt like it lasted forever but the car finally stopped for good. The door was opened and Mal stepped out of the car first, closely followed by Gil, Harry and finally Uma. The four were greeted with a loud marching band that parted for a plump woman in a blue dress with brown hair walking toward them.

__

“Welcome, to Auradon Prep!” The woman announces happily as she stopped in front of them. Two teenagers stood on either side of her. One was a boy in a dark blue suit jacket with yellow pants and the other was a girl in a pink dress with a blue cardigan. “I’m Fairy Godmother, headmistress,” She says with a curtsy.

__

“Like _the_ Fairy Godmother?” Mal asks, stepping forward a bit, “Like bippidi boppidi?”

__

“Bippidi boppidi you know it.” Fairy Godmother says with a smile.

__

“Wow, you know I’ve always wondered what it was like to be Cinderella. When you just popped out of nowhere with the sparkling wand and the warm smile, and that sparkling wand,” Mal says, obvious to all the VKs that she was kissing up to the headmistress, and wanted something from her. Uma rolled her eyes at the obviousness of Mal’s ploy but doesn’t do anything else. If they wanted to be conned, the Aurdonians can be conned for all she cares.

__

“That was a long time ago. And as I always, don’t focus on the past or you’ll miss the future.” Fairy Godmother says, waving her hands about. After that the boy teenager speaks, taking a step forward as he does, the girl Auradonian mirrors his action and gets closer to the other teenagers with him.

__

“It’s so great to finally meet you all. I’m Ben.” 

__

“ _Prince_ Benjamin,” The girl corrects, “Soon to be King.” She adds ecstatically.

__

“This is Audrey,” Ben says, gesturing to the girl in pink.

__

“ _Princess_ Audrey,” She corrects, then adds while grabbing Ben’s hand, “His girlfriend. Right, Benny-boo?”

__

Fairy Godmother leans forward over the pairs joint hands, “Ben and Audrey are going to show you all around, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” She leans back to stand upright and throws Audrey and Ben’s hands forward and apart, saying “The doors of wisdom are never shut,” as she walks toward the Isle kids, “but the library hours are from eight to eleven and you might’ve heard I have a little thing about curfews.” With that she leaves, the marching band following after her.

__

Ben takes a couple more steps forward starting his speech “It is so, so, so, good to finally meet you all. This is a momentous occasion, and one that I hope will go down in history, as the day our two peoples began to heal.” As he was speaking, he walked around all the kids a hand out to shake it. Gill happily shook his hand, Harry just stared at him until he moved onto Uma, then Harry growled at Ben and got partially in front of Uma until Ben backed off and finally went to Mal who shook his hand.

__

“Did you practice that in the mirror?” Uma asks, raising an eyebrow at Ben.

__

“That obvious?” Ben asks, turning to her. Uma and Mal both nodded their heads, Gil and Harry were whispering to each other about something.

__

“Hey,” Audrey says, bringing all attention to her as she stepped toward Mal, pushing Ben slightly away toward the other Isle kids, a bright smile on her face, “You’re Maleficent’s daughter, aren’t you?” At Mal’s ‘obviously’ expression, she continues, “Yeah, you know what? I totally do _not_ blame you for your mother trying to kill my parents and stuff.” Audrey says a light giggle finishing her statement, then adds, as though she had forgotten, but everyone knew she was just faking it, “Oh, my mom’s Aurora. Sleeping-” 

__

“Beauty!” Mal finishes for her, plastering a smile on her own face, “Yeah, I’ve heard the name.” 

__

“Five bucks says they slaughter each other,” Harry whispers to Uma and Gil. Clearly, he didn’t do it quietly enough because Ben’s head snapped over to them. Uma put a finger to her lips to shush him as Mal continued.

__

“You know, and I totally do _not_ blame your grandparents for inviting everyone in the whole world but my mother to their stupid christening,” Mal says, ending her statement with the same light giggle Audrey finished hers with.

__

“Water under the bridge,” Audrey says

__

“Totes.” both laugh lightly after Mal’s statement.

__

“Well, at least both statements are equally true,” Uma mutters before Ben clears his throat and gains everyone's attention.

__

“Okay! How about a tour? Yeah?” Ben sounded almost panicky like he actually believed Mal and Audrey would kill each other. Audrey came up and weaved her arm around one of Bens’ and smiled as Ben waved everyone to follow him. “Auradon Prep, originally built over 300 years ago and converted into a high school by my father when he became king,” Ben says as they circle a statue of King Beast. Ben stops and claps twice, which caused the statue to morph into his father’s beast form.

__

“Impressive,” Uma says, her boys remaining quiet at her sides.

__

“Yes, my father wanted his statue to morph from beast to man to remind us that anything is possible,” Ben says with a smile.

__

“Does he shed much?” Mal asks.

__

“Yeah, mom won’t let him on the couch.” Mal raises her eyebrows at Ben’s response, surprised that he would joke back like that. 

__

“So you guys have a lot of magic here in Auradon? Like wands and things like that?” Mal asks.

__

“Yeah, it exists of course, but it’s pretty much retired. Most of us here are just ordinary mortals.”

__

“Why?” Uma asks, butting in on their conversation.

__

“I’m sorry?” Ben asks, very confused.

__

“Why is magic retired? It’s amazing and incredibly useful. None of this would be possible without it.” 

__

“As I said, most of us aren’t magical beings, so it’s simply not in use that often. It’s not outlawed or anything but the adults want everyone to be able to live without it. Fairy Godmother even put her wand in the Museum of Cultural History.” Ben explains gently, “You can use magic as much as you like, so long as you don’t hurt anyone. My father simply doesn’t like magic, for obvious reasons.” Ben finishes as they stop in the main entrance of Aurodan prep. Audrey and Ben were facing the four Isle kids, there were students milling about the room. “Doug!” Ben calls, waving a boy in a band uniform down from the stairs, “Doug, come down.” When he was beside Ben, Ben introduced the teenager, “This is Doug. He’s going to help you with your class schedules and show you the rest of the dorms. I’ll see you later, okay? And if there is anything you need, feel free to-”

__

“Ask Doug.” Audrey cuts Ben off before the pair leave. 

__

“Hi guys,” Doug says, waving slightly while holding a clipboard in his other hand, “I’m Dopey’s son. As in Dopey, Bashful, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, and..” He hesitated, seeming to forget his last uncles’ name.

__

“Having trouble remembering your whole family?” Harry asks with a wicked smile.

__

“Maybe. Uh, so about your classes. I, uh, put in the requirements already,” Doug looks down at his clipboard, reading off, “History of woodsmen and pirates, safety rules for the Internet, and, uh, remedial goodness 101.”

__

“Let me guess. New class?” Mal asks and Doug just nods in response.

__

“What other classes are there?”

__

” Magical History, Chemistry, Life Skills Without Magic, Basic Chivalry, Grammar, Mathematics, Enchanted Foresty, Bad Fairies, History of Auradon, Dragon Anatomy, Virtues and Values, and Art Class.” Doug lists, “There’s also some afterschool clubs, but you’ll be able to join those after you’ve settled. You’ll need to choose four to five other classes for you to do. You can tell Fairy Godmother at Remedial Goodness 101, tomorrow morning or tell me later today so I can sign you up.” Doug explains.

__

“Magical History, Mathematics, Chemistry, Dragon Anatomy, and Art Class,” Uma says immediately.

__

“Same,” Harry says with a shrug, just wanting to be with Uma.

__

“Sign him up for Life Skills Without Magic, Grammar, Dragon Anatomy, and Enchanted Forestry,” Uma says, overruling Harry and getting him to agree with a look.

__

“Okay,” Doug says making a note of that on his clipboard. “Either of you wants to make any decisions now or wait until later?” Doug asks, gesturing to Mal and Gil.

__

“I’ll just do the same as Harry. But can you add Chivalry?” Gil says with a shrug.

__

“Yup.”

__

“Bad Fairies, Enchanted Forestry, Mathematics and Grammar,” Mal says when Doug looks at her questioningly.

__

“Got it. Your dorms are this way.” Doug says, leading down a hall to their right.

__

It a short walk down the hallway until they reach the dorms. Doug gives Uma and Mal both a key. “You two are rooming together, this is yours. Your stuff is already in the room.” Doug says before taking Harry and Gil away. 

__

Uma and Mal look at each other with disgust before Uma unlocks and opens the door to their room. The pair step into the room and look around.

__

“Gross.” 

__

“Regrettably, I agree with you. Who decided this would be a good colour scheme?”

__

“Too much sunlight,” Mal says and walks to a window to close the curtains.

__

“Do you think we could paint this?”

__

“We?” Mal asks, going to close the curtains on the other window.

__

“You live here too. Or do you agree with a completely blue theme for the room.”

__

“Ew. No. Purple.”

__

“We can do both colours idiot.”

__

“Whatever Shrimpy.”

__

“Lizard Kin.” 

__

“Is that all you got?”

__

“Sorry, insults not up to par princess?” Uma asks sarcastically sitting down on the bed with her luggage by it.

__

“Why did you come?” Mal asks, looking around the room and resolutely not looking at Uma.

__

“What?” Now Uma was just confused. Mal scoffed in response and finally turns to look at the other girl.

__

“Why are you here? Mommy got a grand plan?”

__

“Maybe. Didn’t ask. Emma told me about the invitation, I packed my bags, didn’t even see my mom.”

__

“Emma?” Uma’s whole story made Mal utterly confused.

__

“Emma Swan? Captain Hook’s wife? Terrifying Blonde lady who wields a wavy sword with her and Hook’s name engraved on it?” Uma says as if trying to trigger some memory from Mal.

__

“Don’t know her. Sounds interesting.”

__

“She’s nice. She encouraged me to come. What’s your mom’s grand plan?” Uma asks

__

“Who says she has a grand plan?”

__

“The fact that you asked me if mine had one.” 

__

Mal’s face scrunched up momentarily as she mentally swore and berated herself, before saying, “I don’t have to tell you.”

__

“Whatever, just don’t drag me and my crew into it. I don’t care if you jack shit, but don’t get me involved.” Uma says and starts unpacking. “My side of the room. Stay off!” Uma declares, putting her clothes in the dresser on one side of the bedroom.

__

“You’re seriously just going to stay here?”

__

“Why not?” Uma asks as she whirls around to face Mal, her hair flying wildly. “It’s nice here Mal. Yeah, everyone's a fake ass bitch, but at least I don’t have to worry about getting stabbed or killed or raped. I won’t go hungry, I’ll be able to sleep at least a little bit every night, I won’t be worked until I pass out. So yeah, I’m going to stay here. Because it’s a hell of a lot better than where I was. And if I behave and play my cards right I can get all the other kids over here before the years out.” Uma says before turning around and continuing to unpack.

__

Mal was silent, surprised by Uma’s outburst. Uma was normally far more reserved with what she said. She thought about it and controlled herself to get what she wanted. She would never have said that, admitted her weaknesses, if they were on the Isle. It would be a horrible mistake that could get her killed, or worse. Mal walked toward her bags and started unpacking them into the dresser on her side of the room.

__

“Where could we get paint?” Mal asks after the extended period of silently unpacking.

__

“I’m sure Fairy Godmother would give us some if we asked for it politely.”

__

“Gross.”

__

“Politeness is necessary in this place,” Uma says with a shrug.

__

“Oh thank God.” Mal breathes a sigh of relief.

__

“What?” Uma asks curiously, raising an eyebrow at Mal.

__

“I thought you had gone native. Surviving here with you and your idiots will be hard enough, if you all go native on me I think I might kill someone.”

__

“I’m pretty sure you’re going to kill Audrey anyways.”

__

“She makes it so hard to not want to hurt her. She seriously had to bring up our parents?” Mal scoffs, “Ben didn’t care that Gil’s dad tried to kill his dad but she needed to be a bitch and passive-aggressive about it.”

__

“Ben’s dad also killed Gil’s dad but had him resurrected. Along with my mom, Clayton and countless others. I’m pretty sure your mom was part of that group too.” Uma says.

__

“Maybe? She never mentions dying. She says she just passed out and woke up on the Isle with pain in her chest.”

__

“That’s how Gaston described it, ‘cept for the pain in the chest.”

__

“Wow, she had the gal to annoyed at my mom attempting to kill them but they literally killed my mom. Bitch.”

__

“They won’t count it because they resurrected her. No body, no crime.”

__

Mal snorts, “Normally that has different connotations.” The pair devolve back into silence but this time it was a more comfortable silence.

__

Later, once they were both done unpacking, Uma walked to the door of the room. “I’m gonna go hang out with Harry and Gil, touch my stuff I rip your limbs off,” Uma says before leaving the room.

__

Mal pulls out her mom’s spellbook the moment the door shuts behind Uma and leafs through it, “Come on, come on,” Mal mutters trying to find something before she facepalms. “I’m an idiot.” She mutters before getting up. She leaves the room, locking the door behind her and goes off to try and find Doug or Ben or even Audrey, though she shudders at the thought of asking that girl for help. Eventually, she finds Doug. “Doug!” Mal calls and jogs over to the boy.

__

“Hey, do you need help with something?”

__

“Yeah, uh, Ben mentioned a Museum earlier? One with Fairy Godmothers wand? It was culture and history or something?”

__

“The Museum of Culturally History. I know what you’re talking about. Did you want to go to it?”

__

“Yes! But I don’t know where it is, or how to get there. Could you help me?” Mal asks, putting on her best-begging face and Doug agreed to help almost immediately.

__

Less than an hour later they were standing in front of the museum. It wasn’t very busy, so Doug and Mal were nearly alone in it.

__

“Is there a reason you wanted to come here or are you just looking?” Doug asks as they wander a bit.

__

“Well, I did want to see Fairy Godmother’s wand. Cinderella was always my favourite fairy tale. A poor woman getting abused by her family gets help from a kind fairy and ends up with a better life? What’s not to love?” Mal says, shrugging her shoulders.

__

“Well, then we should go that way for Fairy Godmother’s wand,” Doug says, pointing to their right,” And then if we have time we can check out some of the stuff from the Charming Kingdom. The Museum closes in an hour.” Doug adds as they start walking to the wand.

__

“Well, we can always come back,” Mal says, hurrying a bit to get to the wand. “Woah. That’s some security.” Mal says, circling around the wand that was encased in a force field. Her mother’s spellbook probably had something that could break it. 

__

“Yeah, it’s also on its own alarm system. So even if you shut off the general alarms, this one will still go off. It’s also protected by magic, the only thing in here to be so.” Doug adds

__

“Wow. They really don’t want anyone getting this wand.”

__

“Well yeah, one wave and you can have the barrier around the Isle of the Lost gone in an instant. Fairy Godmother’s wand is pretty powerful. Of course, you still have to be magic to use it so it’d be useless in someone like myself’s hands.”

__

“Cool,” Mal says, eyeing the wand the way a predator eyes its prey. She snapped her head toward Doug, forcing herself to look normal and harmless. “Let's go check out other stuff. This isn’t as cool as I’d thought it’d be.”

__

“Fairy Godmother’s wand is super cool,” Doug says, even as they leave to check out some other exhibits.

__

“It is. Staring at it wrapped in a forcefield isn’t.” Mal says as they head up the stairs.

__

_-Gil & Harry’s Dorm, Auradon-_

__

“So what if the Gecko is planning something? Avoid her, don’t get involved, let her weather the consequences.” Harry says. He was sprawled on his bed, looking very grumpy. Gil was taking Uma’s measurements for a ‘surprise’ he refused to tell either of them anything about aside that Uma will love it.

__

“I just wanted to warn you both. So you’d know, and not get involved.” Uma says, letting Gil manipulate her body to get the measurements he needed. “Is this necessary?”

__

“Well, I know what your approximate size is so technically no but it’ll fit you much better if I have these measurements,” Gil says, before muttering a number to himself and shifting to measure another part of her.

__

“Ye really like making clothes?” Harry asks, still laying down on his bed.

__

“Yup. Mom always said I had a natural ability for it, and a passion for it too. I always helped her make all our clothes.” Gil says, a fond smile marring his face.

__

“It’s good that you found something that makes you happy. Not everyone does.” Uma says. “Why do you look seasick?” She asks, addressing Harry.

__

“My beds not moving,” Harry grumbles.

__

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Gil asks.

__

“Harry’s slept on a ship that rocked with the tides for his whole life. Suddenly he’s sleeping on solid ground, he’s bound to be grumpy. “ Uma explains.

__

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll adjust Harry,” Gil says standing up and walking away from Uma as he finished the measurements. 

__

“Until then, I wish you the worst of luck Gil.” Uma says, “Bye boys!” She calls as she leaves their room and heads back to her own, wanting to make sure Mal didn’t touch any of her stuff while she was gone.

__


	2. Day 2

Uma sat next to Gil with Harry in front of the pair, although he had pushed his chair all the way back to lean against Uma and Gil’s desk and was leaning back in it enough that he was practically part of their table. Mal was sitting on the other side of the little alley between the two colloumns of desks all by herself, doodling away.

“If someone hands you a crying baby do you; a) curse it? b) lock it in a tower? c) give it a bottle?, or d) carve out it’s heart?” Fairy Godmother asks from the front of the class.Uma wasn’t entirely sure if the woman thought that they couldn’t read or that reading it out with little charades would help them. Harry’s hand shot up and Fairy Godmother pointed to him with her long pointer stick.

“How would you define a curse?”

“Using magic to bring harm.” Fairy Godmother says.

“Oh, can’t I just ask the baby to stop?”

“You say that as though you don’t help babysit the kids.” Uma remarks.

“Kids?” Fairy Godmother asks, prompting the group to continue.

“Harry babysits all the little ones around Hook’s Inlet. He’s great with kids.” Gil says happily.

“Oh really? Then can you tell me the correct answer Harry?”

“Give it a bottle. Although that shouldn’t be your go to if the kid starts crying.” Harry grumbles, not happy about the kid stuff being out.

“Correct. And what should be your go to?”

“Ask the person when the last time the kid slept, sniff the brats butt, ask when the kid was last fed, burp it, rock it to sleep. You need more information than just a crying baby to be able to help the baby.” Harry explains, waving his hand as though to dismiss everything he said and nonsensical.

“Aren’t you a dad.” Mal remarks from her side of the classroom.

“Shut up Gecko.” 

“Make me, Guyliner” With Mal’s remark Harry was up and in the alley in a second. Uma’s hand on his arm the only thing keeping him from going after Mal.

“Children!” Fairy Godmother calls, tapping her stick on her podium. “You can take that aggression out to the tourney field, Harry.”

“Tourney?” 

“It’s a sport here in Auradon.” At Fairy Godmother’s explanation, both Gil and Uma busted out laughing. “What’s so funny?” Fairy Godmother asks politely.

“Harry failed PE every year back home. The fact that you recommended a sport for him is hilarious.” Uma says in between her laughter.

“Unless it has swords, Harry doesn’t like it and fails when it comes to physical activity,” Gil adds, shrugging his shoulders.

“Well, there is also R.O.A.R.” Fairy Godmother says.

“I take it that’s another sport?” Mal asks since the other two were still coming down from their laughter and Harry seemed to have a one-track mind that was only on her at the moment.

“Yes, with swords. You’ll be part of a Swords and Shields team. Which is compromised of 8 men and a Captain, you’ll fight with other students and against other schools. I’m sure it’ll be right up your alley Harry.” Fairy Godmother explains.

“We’ll make sure he checks it out,” Uma says and nudges Harry back into his chair.

“Okay.” Fairy Godmother says with a smile and a nod. She moved to continue with the lesson but she stopped at the last second, eyes glued to someone coming down the aisle. She was a short girl with bobbed hair and a blue dress. “Oh, hello dear one.” Fairy Godmother says, her smile getting warmer and more maternal. It wasn’t hard to guess that this girl was her actual child.

“You need to sign off on early dismissal for the coronation.” The girl mumbles holding out a clipboard and a pen for the Fairy Godmother to sign. She quickly does and the girl turns around to leave.

“Everyone remembers my daughter Jane?” Fairy Godmother asks, which seems to send Jane into a panic.

“Mom! No!” Jane hisses at Fairy Godmother.

“It’s okay,” Fairy Godmother says, “Jane this is everyone.” Everyone gives Jane some small waves as a greeting.

“Hi. That’s okay. Don’t mind me. As you were.” Jane says and hurries out of the room.

Fairy Godmother clears her throat to gain everyone's attention once more, “Let’s continue. You find a vial of poison. Do you, a) put it in the king’s wine? b) paint it on an apple? or c) turn it over to the proper authorities?” When no one raised their hand to answer, she calls on one of them. “Mal?”

“C, turn it over to the proper authorities,” Mal answers easily.

“Correct.”

_-Tourney Field-_

“You two didn’t have to come,” Gil says as Harry and Uma follow him to meet the Tourney coach.

“We’re crew. We stick together. Even if you two decide to do stupid sports.” Uma says 

“I wouldn’t call these sports stupid,” Ben says, coming up beside the trio. “How are you adjusting?”

“Bed too stable.” Harry grumbles haven’t gotten much sleep the night before.

Uma takes pity on Ben’s confused little puppy face and explains, “Harry’s slept on a boat his entire life, he doesn’t like sleeping on solid ground.”

“Oh. I’m sure we could figure something out if it bugs you that much. Are you trying out for Tourney?”

“Gil is.” Harry and Uma say in sync, pointing at said blond, who waves happily at Ben.

“Awesome. I can help you train if you want.” Ben offers with a gentle smile.

“Hey, what other stupid sports do you have?” Harry asks, a scheming look in his eyes.

“Uh, Cheerleading, ROAR, Tennis and Swimming.”

“Swimming? A stupid sport you can do.” Harry says before adding teasingly, “ Wouldn’t mind if you also decided to do a bit of cheerleading Captain.”

“You wish,” Uma says with a roll of her eyes, before turning to Ben. “Show me where the swim team meets after Tourney.”

“Happily. You two can sit on the bleachers over there, Gil why don't you come with me?” Ben says and they all separate, Harry and Uma sitting on the bleachers while Gil gets equipped to play Tourney.

_-Girls Washroom-_

“Hi,” Mal says as she enters the washroom, Jane was at the sinks. “It’s Jane, right? I’ve always loved that name, Jane.” Mal says, walking toward said girl with a smile plastered on her face.

“That’s cool,” Jane says before trying to flee.

“Don’t go!” Mal yells in a panic and instantly regrets it. “I guess I was just hoping to make a friend. I’m all alone.”

“What about those other kids from the Isle?” Jane asks.

Mal scoffs, “Are you kidding? You saw how we were sitting in Remedial Goodness. They hate me. I didn’t get to come here with any of my friends from the Isle. You probably have all the friends you need here, though.” Mal says, head hanging low.

“Hardly,” Jane says with a shrug which causes Mal to raise her head.

“Really? I mean, with you mom being Fairy Godmother _and_ Headmistress? I mean not to mention your own, uh, personality?” 

“I’d rather be pretty. You’ve got great hair.” Jane says. Mal’s hand immediately goes to her hair and she remembers what she read in her mother’s spellbook.

“You know what? I have just the thing for that.” Mal says and pulls up the book, flipping through it to get to the right page, “It’s right…. Ah! Here. _Beware, Forswear, Replace the old with new hair._ ” Mal finishes casting the spell and Janes' hair becomes longer, flowing beautifully with waves.

“Wow. Do my nose!” Jane says once she finished admiring her hair.

“Oh, I can’t.” _’ There’s not a spell for that in here.’_ Mal thought before continuing out loud, “I’ve been practicing, but you know, I can’t really do big magic.” Mal says while gesturing to Jane’s face. “Not like your mom with her wand. I mean, one swoosh from that thing and you could probably have whatever features you wanted.” Mal suggests.

“She doesn’t use the wand anymore. She believes real magic is in the books, and not the spellbooks. Regular books, with history and stuff.” Jane says, disappointed.

“What a rip,” Mal says, shaking her head.

“Yeah.” 

“You know, she used magic on Cinderella, who wasn’t even her real daughter. Doesn’t she love you?”

“Of course she does. It’s, It’s just, you know, tough love.” ‘ _Our definitions of tough love are probably very different.’_ Mal thinks as Jane continues speaking, “ ‘Work on the inside, not the outside.’ you know, that sort of thing.” Jane says, looking dejected and upset.

“That's the face!” Mal exclaims, shocking Jane. “Yeah, and then just look as if your,” Mal pauses and forces her face to go into the miserable and upset look she’d want Jane to have, “your heart is about to break. ‘Oh, mother, I just don’t understand why you can’t make me beautiful too.’ “

“Think it would work?” Jane asks, excited at the prospect.

“Yeah. I mean, that’s what old Cindy did right? And your mother Bibbidi-bobbidi-booed the living daylights out of her. And, hey, if your mom does decide to break out the old wand, invite me. Maybe some of that goodness will rub off on me.” Mal says with a gentle smile.

“If I can convince mom, you are so there,” Jane says, waving bye as she leaves the restroom. Mal’s smile morphing into one of a cat that just caught her mouse.

_-Swimming Pool House-_

“There are no sharks.” Was the first thing Uma commented when she saw the swim team.

“No. We don’t swim with animals. Well, you can in some places but not on a competitive team. “ Ben says standing beside her. Gil was doing some runs with the Tourney coach and Fairy Godmother had asked to speak with Harry so it was just the two of them.

“Well that sucks.” Uma says as Ben flags down the swim coach.

“Hey, Coach Eirene, this is Uma. She wanted to join the swim team” Ben says when the woman came over to them.

“Hi Uma. I’m Eirene. It’s nice to meet you. Would you mind swimming a few laps so I can get a feel for your style?” The blonde woman asks kindly.

“Why don’t you go change?” Ben adds, handing over a bag he had been carrying. Uma raised an eyebrow but left to change in private.

“She is one of the Isle kids, no?” 

“Yes. She’s used to swimming with sharks in the ocean so the pool might be an adjustment.” 

“I’m sure she will be fine, she is Ursula’s daughter,” Eirene says as Uma comes back in a one-piece Auradon swimsuit.

“Do I need to wear _this_ one?” Uma asks, looking at the blue and yellow suit in disgust.

“For meets, yes. But you can get a different one for practices and free swimming.” Eirene says with a smile before gesturing for Uma to get into the pool. “You can go now Prince Ben, I will take care of her.” She dismisses him politely.

“Uh, right. Okay. Good luck Uma.” Ben says before leaving the pool house. Uma ignores the prince and just dives right into the pool and starts swimming laps. When she has done a few Eirene calls for her to stop.

“You are an excellent swimmer Uma. Come over and meet the other girls.” Eirene invites, helping Uma get out of the pool, and walking over to where the swim team was. “Girls, this is Uma. She will be joining us.” Eirene calls, and the girls wave and call back a greeting to Uma.

One girl, with stark black hair, came forward holding her hand out for Uma to shake, “I’m Vanora, current Swim Team Captain. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She says sweetly.

“Same,” is all Uma says, shaking the girl's hand. 

“I believe Uma would be best to do Freestyle, do you agree Vanora?” Eirene asks.

“From what I saw when she was swimming laps, yeah that’d be best, but I’d like to work with her a bit. Maybe teach her some of the proper forms,” Vanora says, looking to Eirene for approval.

“I think that’d be wonderful. Why don’t you girls go over to the green pool and I’ll continue practice with the others?” Eirene asks and Vanora nods, taking Uma’s hand and pulling her over to a pool a little ways away from the one the swim team was training in that was line with green tiles around the perimeter.

“The tiles around all the pools are different colours so we kind of just identify them by that,” Vanora explains with a little shrug.

Uma nods before asking, “What’s freestyle?”

“It’s a portion of the competition when the swimmer can swim whatever style they want. There’s the butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke and then the freestyle event where you can do any of those or a front crawl, sidestroke or whatever form you swim the best in. You don’t swim in a proper form, you seem to mash up a few from what I saw, which is why Eirene suggested you train for freestyle.” Vanora explains.

“Makes sense, but you’re going to teach me the proper forms anyways?”

“Yes, because you might be better or like one of the proper forms more and prefer to train in that one. Best to keep your options open.” Vanora says with a kind smile, “I’m going to demonstrate the butterfly stroke, the breaststroke and then the backstroke and then you can decide which one you want to go over first.” Vanora waits for Uma’s nod before diving into the pool and demonstrating the strokes.

_-Uma & Mal’s dorm room-_

“How was ROAR?” Uma asks Harry who was sprawled out on one of the chairs in the dorm room. Harry and Gil were visiting the room, Mal wasn’t super happy with it but she wasn’t really upset either. She mainly ignored them and leafed through her book. Gil was sowing something at the table, and Uma was lying on her bed.

“Alright. The swords are spelled to not hurt anyone but, other than that it’s interesting. How’s swimming?”

“So much work without Bartholomew or Fang. Not sure if it’s worth it if I don’t get to hang out with the sharks.” Uma grumbles, she had fun but she really didn’t like how much work she had to put in into learning the proper forms.

Harry was about to ask something else when the dorm room door slammed open and in stormed Jane who stopped and gently shut the door behind her, before continuing into the room.

“Mom said, ‘If a boy can’t see the beauty within, then he’s not worth it.’ Can you believe it? What world does she live in?” Jane complains walking toward Mal.

“Auradon?” Mal says, looking up from her book to look at Jane. Jane sighs and sits down on Mal’s bed by the purple-haired girl.

“I’ll never get a boyfriend.”

“Boyfriends are overrated,” Mal says, going back to flipping through her book.

“You’ve never had a boyfriend ” Uma, interrupting their conversation, and by the way Jane jerked, she realized that there were three other people in the room for the first time.

“I don’t need one to know they’re a waste of time, Uma,” Mal says with a roll of her eyes. Just then a knock sounded at their door before it was gently opened to reveal a Chinese teenager with a black bob of hair, who walked into the room.

“Hey, guys! I’m Lonnie, my moms Mulan?” She asks, looking for any reaction but she was mostly getting blank stares, not because they didn’t know who her mom was, but because they didn’t know why she was in their room, “No?” She turns to Mal to address her,” Anyways, I love what you’ve done with Jane’s hair. And I know you hate us and, well, you’re evil. But do you think you could do mine?” Lonnie asks.

“And why would I do that for you?” Mal asks, raising an eyebrow at the girl.

“I’ll pay you fifty bucks?” Lonnie says holding up a small pouch.

“I’ll accept it,” Mal says, getting off her bed and grabbing the pouch of money.

“Make it cool, like yours.” Lonnie requests.

“ _Beware, Forswear, replace the old with cool hair_ ” Mal chants and soon enough Lonnie’s hair grew quite a bit, turned a lighter brown and got a bit more curly around the ends.

“I love it,” Lonnie says looking at herself in the mirror, “but,” she hesitates and leans down a bit, and rips her skirt near the bottom a bit. “Now I’m cool.”

“Very,” Harry comments eyebrows near his hairline. Everyone was pretty shocked that she had just down that. Jane walked up next to Lonnie and did the exact same to her skirt.

“You should wear a different skirt if you want it to look nice ripped,” Uma adds, looking at the rip in each skirt. It didn’t look bad, but it didn’t look great.

“Oh no, what have I done? Mom is going to kill me!” Jane says, panicking completely.

“I can sew it up.” Gil offers, “Like Uma said, that skirt isn’t exactly a good one to have a rip right there. You could borrow one of the ones I made for Uma while I sew it up if you’d like?” 

“Don’t go offering my clothes.” Uma objects, but it was clear to the Isle kids that it was only a token objection.

“I haven’t even given you the skirt yet,” Gil says and pulls out a leather deep sky blue skirt with a rip on the side.

“Thank you,” Jane says, sounding as though Gil had just saved her life and rushed into the bathroom to change.

“Yeah her shirt ain't going to go well with that,” Uma says, getting up off her bed to go through her closet.

“Wow, you guys are actually nice.” Lonnie says, sounding amazed.

“Don’t get used to it.” Uma says as she pulls out a teal top and walks to the bathroom, knocking gently on it, “Jane I have a top for you.” Jane opens the door slightly and takes the top from Uma’s grasp and then closes the bathroom door again.

“Why are you still here lassie?” Harry asks, raising an eyebrow at Lonnie.

“Oh, sorry.” She says and quickly leaves the room. Jane comes out a minute later. The teal top was a skin tight crop one shoulder long sleeve. The skirt stopped just above Jane’s knees and the rip was fully open with some fishnet in between it.

“You look cute.” Mal says, eyeing Jane.

“Thanks, but, I feel really exposed. Do you have a jacket I could borrow?” Jane asks as she hands Gil her skirt, who immediately set about finding a good thread to sew it up with.

“I got it!” Mal calls and heads to her dresser immediately pulling out an emerald green leather jacket and handing it over to Jane who pulled it on. 

“Looking good fairy.” Harry comments and Jane admires herself in the mirror.

“I look cool. So cool.” 

“All you need are the right threads,” Mal says with a shrug.

“Hey, do you guys want to go get dinner? The Cafeteria has pizza today.” Jane asks, looking around.

“Sure, Pizza sounds nice,” Mal says and the other three nod, none of them had had anything to eat in hours.

_-Cafeteria-_

“Pizza’s good,” Uma says through her mouthful of food, her, Harry, Mal, Jane and Gil were all seated around a table eating away some pizza, in that order with an empty seat between Mal and Harry. Some people had stared at Jane when the group walked in but now most people in the cafeteria were too concerned with their own food to care.

“Soo good.” Mal moans in agreement, while not friends, the group had set aside their differences for now because pizza was just that good.

“Jane?!” A voice screeches from behind the group. They all turn to see Audrey hold a plate of pizza with Ben to her right and a blonde boy to her left.

“Hi, Audrey,” Jane mumbles, closing in on herself, trying to hide.

“What are you wearing?” Audrey demands, looking horrified.

“Clothes. What else would she be wearing?” Uma asks, a confrontational look on her face.

“Why are you dressed like them?” Audrey demands, ignoring Uma.

“We gave her a makeover. You want one too?” Mal asks, raising an eyebrow.

“And look like I crawled out of a garbage dump?”

“You already do,” Uma says. Audrey gets an offended look on her face but Uma continues before Audrey can say anything, “Unless you want to sit and eat with us, go away.” Audrey scoffs and stomps away with the blonde boy following after her. Ben stays and sits down between Mal and Harry.

“How was swimming Uma?” Ben asks as he starts cutting up his pizza.

“Good.” Uma says, before taking a bite of her pizza.

“So, I didn’t really see you around today, Mal, was everything okay? Did you need anything?” Ben asks.

“Everything was fine. We gave Jane a makeover. Had some fun.” Mal says with a shrug, going to take another bite of pizza when she remembered something. “Oh! I wanted to ask you something,” Ben gave Mal his attention despite having just eaten some of his pizza. “I heard your coronation was next week? And we all get to go?” Mal asks and Ben nods happily, swallowing his food before speaking.

“Yes. You’re all invited. It’ll probably be a bit boring but there’ll be a party afterwards.”

Mal nods and looks around the table, Gil and Jane were deep in conversation as were Uma and Harry. No one was paying attention to her and Ben. Good. “Do you think it’d be possible for us to stand with Fairy Godmother? Or just me? I heard she was going to be in the front row and I just want to soak up all that goodness.” Mal asks, making herself sound as though she was close to begging.

Ben looked as if he was going agree before wincing slightly, “I’m sorry, I wish you could. Upfront, it’s just me, my folks and my girlfriend.“

“And your girlfriend?”

“Yeah, sorry. But there will be plenty of chances to hang with Fairy Godmother if you want.” Ben says with an apologetic smile.

“That’s okay. Thanks anyway.” Mal says and finishes her pizza with one bite.

“Ben! They’ve never had cookies!” Jane calls from across the table, sounding offended and broken-hearted. 

“Really?”

“Our parents weren’t really the baking types,” Uma says with a shrug.

“My mom burns water,” Harry adds.

“Oh, well after dinner maybe we can show you how to bake some really good cookies,” Ben suggests looking around at the people around him.

“Sounds like fun.” 

 

“Hey, Uma, could I talk to you for a second?” Mal asks, causing everyone’s attention to turn to her, “privately?” Mal adds, ignoring Harry’s death glare.

“Sure. We’ll follow y’all in in a bit.” Uma says, waving everyone off into the kitchen. Once everyone was inside the kitchen and the door was shut, Uma raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“I want us to be friends. We’re the only girls here who know how bad the Isle is and we can’t be enemies. Especially when surrounded by heroes.” Mal fake pleads, she needs at least one ally/minion to pull off her mothers plan and neither of the boys will talk to her unless Uma talks to her first.

“We won’t be friends. Ever. You decided that years ago when you poured shrimp in my hair and destroyed my rep.”

 

“You laughed at me when you thought I was drowning!”

“I didn’t realize your dumbass didn’t know how to swim.”

“Ugh, this is useless. _A bond of friendship is born the moment you look into my eyes. Time turns on its head and I’m given the power to a foe a friend, the exhilarating spirit of the ages rising around me._.” Mal incants, and lucky for her Uma was already looking into her eyes. Uma’s eyes go green for a moment before returning to their normal brown. “Friends?” Mal asks, holding out her hand.

“Duh.” Uma says, slapping her hand into Mal’s and shaking it. Mal smirked as the pair walk into the kitchen.


	3. Day 3

Mal was genuinely surprised how fun baking cookies with Ben, Jane, Uma, Harry and Gil was. She and Uma had been relegated to shaping the cookies after a couple failed attempts at making the dough. Apparently they kept forgetting some stuff. But then shaping the cookies didn’t end up much better since they ended up with a food fight. She and Uma chucking cookie dough at each other, Harry had been throwing eggs, Gil was holding a bowl as a shield and throwing flour in the girls general direction when Uma and Mal had teamed up and started throwing food at the boys. Jane and Ben had started out hiding from the food but Jane migrated over to Uma and Mal and joined their team while Ben got sucked up in helping Harry and Gil. 

By the end they were all in desperate need of a shower. Mal had gotten egg in her hair thanks to Harry. Uma was white thanks the Gil chucking flour at her. They were all filthy and the kitchen was an absolute mess which they also had to clean up. Despite that it actually put Mal into a good mood the next morning. Enough so that she was actually happy as she was heading to her first class. 

“You still smell like egg.” Uma comments, walking with Mal to History of Woodsmen and Pirates. 

“I know. I scrubbed so hard to get it out too. I’m pretty Harry was out for revenge.” Mal says touching her hair. She could smell it herself despite actually putting on the complementary perfume that they were given in Auradon.

“Hey if it’s still around tomorrow we’ll be calling you Eggy.”

Mal groans but there wasn’t any actual emotion behind it. “Come up with a better name than eggy please.”

“You just called me shrimpy.”

“I was six. Now we’re sixteen.”

“Fine sunny side up.”

“What?” Before Uma could specify they were in their seats and the teacher was calling for attention. 

 

“Hard boiled?” Uma asks as they leave the class

“Are you just calling me cooked eggs?

“Yup.”

“Maybe we should stick with Eggy”

“Whatever Eggbert.” Uma says and walks away.

 

_-Picnic Area-_

“I have never been in a food fight before.” Ben says, sitting down next to Uma, across from Harry and Gil.

“I can tell.” Uma says as she pulls out a piece of cookie dough still stuck to his hair.

“Oh, I didn’t notice. Are food fights common on the Isle?”

“Very.”

“It’s best to be the one who starts them.” Harry advises with a sharp smile.

“Well. I’m sorry we didn’t get to make many cookies.”

“The food fight was better than cookies.”

“Aye, and we learned Jane has quite an arm. Also, is it still possible to try out for cheerleading?” Harry asks, an evil smirk upon his face. Uma flipped him off before Ben answered.

“I’d have to ask Audrey. She’s cheer captain. But I don’t think guys can do cheerleading” Ben says, very confused.

“Not for me, beastie. Uma lost a bet.”

“It was a stupid bet.”

“A bets a bet captain.” 

“What was the bet?” Gil asks, just as lost as Ben.

“I bet eyeliner here that you wouldn’t join in on a food fight because you’re too proper. I was wrong. Now I gotta join cheerleading if possible.”

“What would’ve happened if you’d been right?” 

“Harry would’ve had to help Mal with whatever she’s planning. Or whatever her moms planning.”

“What are you talking about?” Ben asks, very confused.

“Mal’s mom has some grand plan she wants Mal to do. I don’t know what it is but I think it has something to do with Fairy Godmother's wand with how enamoured by it she is.” Uma explains with a shrug.

“You think she’d be willing to do something evil?”

“We were raised by villains Ben, what do you think?” Uma asks rhetorically. “Besides it's not like she has nothing to worry about. If she fails her gang is probably going to get punished. Before she gets punished.” 

“Oh, I guess I didn’t think.”

“What? That our parents evil doing wouldn’t be passed along? That we wouldn’t be so terrified of our parents and of yours that we’d do whatever it takes to satisfy them?”

“Why would you be scared of my parents?” Ben asks, and Uma takes a deep breath before saying.

“They’re responsible for our lives. They’re responsible for our deaths. If we do something evil here do you think they’ll hesitate to send us back to the Isle? If we do what our parents want then at least we won’t have to worry about what they’ll do. You’re parents just don’t want us to exist. Want to ignore us. Sweep us under the rug. We have a right to be terrified of them while here. Despite how much I want to be good, I can understand why she’s doing what her mother wants because if she doesn’t and she gets sent back to the Isle anyways? She’ll be in deep shit and no one here will give a shit.” Uma explains, barely keeping herself from shouting.

“You won’t be sent back to the Isle!” Ben did not have the same restraint and did shout. But he quieted himself down at a look from the trio. “Sorry, it's just, your stay here isn’t conditional. You could turn the school into a pumpkin and I wouldn’t let you be sent back. The Isle is clearly an awful place to be, and I wouldn’t let that happen. Even if I couldn’t let you stay in Auradon you’d be welcome in Agrabah, Atlantis, with the Radcliffes, Dunbroch, Motunui and Drekkjavegr.”

“Drekkjavegr?” Gil asks, the name unfamiliar.

“King Eric and Queen Ariel’s kingdom,” Ben explains.

“Wait we’re welcome in all those places?”

“Yes. They’re not part of the USA. They felt that the punishment of our villains was too harsh. They’ve wanted the children out once they heard but my dad was against it. If you act against Auradon I’ll have to remove you, but you’ll be welcome elsewhere that isn’t the Isle.”

“Good to know,” Uma says.

“That’s not an excuse to do bad things. Also, do you know Cruella’s child? Or children? The amount of children on the Isle isn’t clear.”

“Cruella has a son, Carlos.” Harry supplies. He had had the most experience with the De Vil family.

“Why? Bringing him over next?” Uma asks.

“The Radcliffe’s wanted to know. They were worried about what she’d do with her own child, considering what she would do to puppies. They’ve been begging my father to let them adopt any and all of Cruella’s children because they thought she’d be too cruel to them.” Ben explains.

“They’re right.”

“Speaking of bringing kids over, can we talk about it later?” Uma asks.

“Of course. If you have any ideas or recommendations, I’m all ears.”

“Good. Now go find Audrey and ask about cheerleading Beastie.” Harry dismisses making shooing motions to the future king until he got the hint and left the table.

“You don’t care that much about the cheerleading. You just wanted to pick something I’d hate as much as you’d hate working with Mal.” Uma says, her gaze questioning.

“Gil, go find your girlfriend,” Harry says, almost pushing Gil off the bench.

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Gil says as he gets up, confusion evident.

“Jane. Shoo.” Harry says and Gil obediently leaves.

“So they do like each other. I was unsure of Gil but I’m pretty sure Jane was drooling over him yesterday.”

“Yeah, Gil has a crush the size of a Kraken. Not relevant right now,” Harry says, sounding serious.

“What? Are we under attack?” Uma asks, very confused by Harry’s demeanour.

“When were you going to tell me you liked the little beast?”

“He’s a friend Harry.”

“Like him the way you like me. Date like.”

“I-I don't,” Uma says, surprised by Harry’s accusation. “I don’t even like you that way,” Uma says before getting up and storming off. Harry dropped his head onto the picnic table. He definitely could’ve gone about that better.

 

“What’s got you upset?” Mal asks, finding Uma still fuming. 

“Harry thinks I have a crush on the Beastling. I don’t, he’s a convenient acquaintance!”

“Didn’t peg Harry for the jealous type.”

“He’s not,” Uma states, ending all deliberation. “Harry isn’t jealous, he wants to know if we’re adding someone to our relationship.” Uma pauses and looks at Mal, who clearly wants something. “What do you want?”

“I need your help,” Mal says, taking a seat across from Harry.

“Spill.” 

“How do act like I like boys?”

“What?”

“How do I act like I have strong feelings for the opposite gender? You’ve dated men before, I think. How do I act like I care?”

“Why are you asking me this?”

“Because your my only friend?”

“I meant why are you asking about liking men. “

“Because I don’t like boys that way and I need to pretend I do. Stop asking questions and just help me.”

Uma laughed lightly before answering. “Look at him like he’s the best thing in the world. Smile like you’ve just seen your worst enemy faceplant on a sidewalk. Laugh at his jokes, but not too much. Pretend to care about his feelings and what he wants to do. Act like you’re having the best day of your life just by being in his presence.”

“Wow. That’s how you act with Harry?”

“No. I love Harry. That’s how you act when you want to honeypot someone.”

“Oh,” Mal was kinda shocked Uma so freely admitted to loving Harry, “Okay,” Mal says before turning and heading to class.

_-Ben’s Office-_

“Nice office,” Uma says as Ben invites her in. It’s a spacious room with a large desk in front of a large window. There was a pair of chairs in front of the desk and then there were a pair of couches facing each other in the middle of the room with a coffee table between them.

“Yeah,” Ben says looking around the office, he clearly likes it as much as Uma does, which isn’t much. “You wanted to talk about the Isle children, figured we’d do it in an official environment.”

“Right. I want to bring more over.”

“More will be brought over after my coronation,” Ben says and gestures for Uma to sit down on one of the couches, taking a seat on the other himself when she had sat down. 

“How do you plan on deciding who comes?”

“I plan to go from most to least risk. So those under the care of vile villains will be brought over first.”

“Are they all going to come to Auradon?”

“That was the plan?” Ben says, but he was unsure since Uma was asking.

“You mentioned earlier some places that would accept us if we screwed up here, and I was thinking that letting the kids choose where they get to go would be better. Hand out something like this to all the Isle kids,” Uma says, sliding a sheet of paper onto the coffee table, “and let them rank where they’d like to go from most preferable to least..”

Ben pulled the sheet closer to him and looked at it. It was a list of all the places he had listed earlier, save for the Radcliffe residence, with boxes next to them. “That could work. I’d need to talk to the rulers of all these places, make sure they’re all okay with this arrangement but this might work better than what I had planned. If they agree then we could also take more kids off the Isle at a time. To placate all my council members I agreed to only bring four villain kids over to Auradon every month at most.” Ben explains.

“That’s bullshit. But also, people on the Isle have friends, gangs, people they don’t want to leave. It’s why Harry’s here rather than his sisters.”

“Harry has sisters?”

“Yeah, an older, Harriet, and a younger Calista Jane. She prefers CJ though. CJ refused to come because Freddie Facilier wasn’t invited and Harriet was too old.”

“Too old?”

“Harriet’s nineteen. The letter said fourteen to seventeen years of age.”

“I-I never wanted an age limit on those coming.”

“Well, one was added. Anyways, another thing that should be part of the form is who they want to be with when they get brought over. If CJ wants to go to Motunui really badly but Freddie wants to come to Auradon really badly, but both refuse to leave the other, then you’ll need to find a common ground because friends shouldn’t be separated. You want us to be good? Having friends and people we already love with us will help that.” Uma explains. Ben had begun writing in the middle of her speech, making a note of everything important.

“Thank you. This was going to be next to impossible by myself, I’m glad you want to help. I didn’t even consider any of these things.” 

“I’ll be coming back with more ideas when I get them. No child deserves to live like that.” Uma says and leaves the office.

_-Uma and Mal’s Dorm Room-_

“Have fun with Ben? Admit your eternal love?” Mal asks when Uma comes back, eyes glued to her book.

“Totally, we talked about bringing kids over from the Isle, very romantic,” Uma says plopping down onto her bed and staring up at the ceiling. Silence rang through the room for a few minutes before Mal quietly shut her book. She looked at Uma as a silent debate was going on inside her head, before saying;

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” Uma asks, shooting into a sitting position, looking at Mal suspiciously.

“I’m sorry for the Shrimp thing. For destroying your rep, making your life harder. I’m sorry. It was childish of me, and I can’t begin to understand how hard it must've been for you.”

“Why the sudden attitude change? Auradon rubbing off on you already? It’s been three days.” Uma asks, suspicious of Mal and her intent.

“It’s not that sudden. I- I never wanted to do it in the first place,” Mal’s gaze returned to her book, unable to look at Uma, “my mom pressured me and when I heard you laughing I just got so angry, I did it without thinking and then I had to think fast. I was a kid and terrified of what might happen to me. So I called you Shrimpy, mocked you, and prayed no one could see how scared I was.” Mal had tears in her eyes but she wasn’t letting them fall.

“I didn’t realize you couldn’t swim,” Uma says after a couple of beats of silence. “We hung out by the docks so much that I just figured you knew. Didn’t make sense for us to be there if you could die by a simple misstep. Didn’t realize how stupid we were. Emma helped me realize you couldn’t swim.”

“How?” Mal had been careful to keep any weaknesses hidden. The fact that a woman she never met knew one unnerved her.

“She asked me uncomfortable questions. I had to examine what I saw that day. When you were falling, you looked so terrified. I figured it was just because you got pushed, but it was more severe. You were scared of dying.”

“Everyones scared of dying. Still, it doesn’t excuse what I did. I was a kid, but you were one too. I shouldn’t have done that and then started being so mean to you.” Mal says.

“What was your mom pressuring you to do?” Uma asks.

“She wanted me to ruin you, destroy our friendship. She didn’t like it, she doesn’t like Ursula so why would she like me being friends with you? She figured it was only so I could tear you down and hurt you more, and I was too scared to correct her and she started pressuring me to tear you down because I was getting too old to be seen hanging with you. It could impact my future rep. I was so scared of her, I didn’t want to disappoint her. My temper got the better of me when I heard you laughing and I did what my mom wanted. I really am sorry Uma. I don’t expect you to forgive me, now or ever. I just, wanted you to know.”

“You don’t deserve my forgiveness but maybe Auradon has been rubbing off on me, cause you have it. You’re my friend, even if you’re just doing this because you want something.” Uma says, tears had formed in her eyes, but she wasn’t letting them fall. before asking, “What do you want?” with a little wet laugh

Mal does the same laugh before answering “Well since you mentioned bringing kids, could you ask to bring over Evie, Jay and Carlos?”

“What? Not confident in your mommy’s plan?”

“It’s hard. I’m alone. Surrounded by all this niceness and people unending faith in me. I tripped Chad Charming into the lunch table and laughed, and Ben just scolded me and told me to try better. That I was on a learning curve and I’ll get that I shouldn’t be hurting people for my entertainment. He didn’t even let Chad get mad at me. I just, feel like I’m losing my footing half the time.” Mal says and then does a half shrug, “And I don’t want them to get hurt if I fail.” Uma nods in agreement and debates a couple moments before getting up and plopping herself down beside Mal on the other girls bed.

“What’s her plan?”

“What?”

“I’m going to help you Eggy. What’s your mommy’s plan?”

“Why would you? We could get into serious trouble.” _‘Despite that I actually spelled you for that very purpose.’_ Mal thought with a little regret. Auradon was rubbing off on her too much.

“We’re friends. Friends help each other. Besides, Ben will protect us, if he can’t he can send us to another place that will accept us into open arms. He even listed off a few places that have been fighting for us to get off the Isle for years.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“I just found out today. Now tell me the plan, I already know it has to do with Fairy Godmother’s wand.”

“My mom wants me to get the Fairy Godmother’s wand. With it, she can break the barrier and rule the world. The security is too heavy at the museum where it’s kept to grab it there. I was planning on grabbing it at the coronation, but Benny-boo needs a change in girlfriend for that to happen.” Mal pauses, opening her book and flipping through a bit to land on the page. “And he seems to like chocolate chip cookies so I was thinking of cooking this recipe into some of those cookies. Feed him some, get him in love with me.” Mal explains.

“Good plan. Flawed a bit, but good enough to work. When were you planning on baking?”

“Tonight. When everyone’s asleep. That way no one will catch me making a love potion.”

“If you’re going to give him a cookie tomorrow it’ll either have to be in the early morning long before the Tourney game, maybe at lunch or after the game.”

“Why?”

“Ben doesn’t eat before a big game. Gil told me.”

“Okay. I mean it can’t be that hard to manipulate him into eating a cookie right? Just play the ‘oh I’m a poor villain kid, no one trusts me, or likes me, of course, you wouldn’t want my cookie I worked so hard on’ card?”

“That’s a long ass title for a card. But yeah. Now I ain't risking my ass for nothing, I want you to help me learn this.”Uma says, pointing to Mal’s book.

“Magic? Sure. I don’t know how well it’ll work for you, we’re different species after all, but it can’t hurt to try.” 

_-Kitchen-_

“At least they have eggs from a black hen,” Uma says handing over the eggs to Mal.

“Yeah, too bad they don’t have tears of human sadness. I don’t know if we can even make that. I’m a fairy, you're a half cephalopod or something, we’re not exactly human.” Mal complains as she mixes the eggs into the other ingredients. Uma was looking for a marble bowl to mix the other things in.

“Ah-ha!” Uma cheers, pulling out a stone bowl. “This is heavy, and I have to agree, we’re not exactly human. And the boys don’t cry. I mean, I could rip out Harry’s heart, but there’ll probably be an easier way without lasting emotional trauma.” Uma puts the marble bowl on the table across from Mal’s mixing station. Most of the ingredients needed for the marble bowl were gathered earlier, save for two. 

“Probably.” Mal agrees as she finishes mixing the batter.

“How do I mix ‘a longing for love unending and pure’ and ‘memories of a happy time’ in a bowl?” Uma asks as she mixes together the other ingredients needed. 

“Gimme.” Mal says, making grabby motions. Uma slides the bowl over with a shrug. “Okay, who do we know who longs for love?”

“Jane?”

Mal waves off the suggestion, “She and Gil got together earlier today.”

“You?”

“Excuse me?”

“You want your mother to love you don’t you? To love you for who you are and nothing more?”

“...Maybe. Give me a moment.” Mal says and for a moment is silent and stirring the batter. “Okay, now memories of a happy time?”

“I can do that if you want me to?”

“Sure. Think of happy memories and stuff for a minute.”

Uma nods and follows Mal’s instructions for a minute before asking,

“You done?”

“Yep. Should be in there. Now all we need is a tear of human sadness.”

“Yeah, how hard would that be?” As if to answer Uma’s question, Lonnie bursts into the kitchen. Uma covers the spellbook with a rag to hide it from her, lest she figures out what they’re up to.

“There you are Mal! I was looking for you. You know all the girls want you to do their hair!” Lonnie exclaims, excited.

“They paying?” Uma asks which gets a shrug in response before Lonnie stepped closer to their table.

“Midnight snack, huh? What are you guys making?” Lonnie asks.

“Nothing special, just cookies,” Mal says with a shrug, mentally praying for the other girl to just leave. Instead, she gets closer and looks into the batter. 

“What kind?”

“Chocolate chip. Ben showed us how to make them yesterday and since we were terrible at it then, we wanted to show him how much we improved.” Uma explains.

“You only learned how to make them yesterday?” Lonnie asks and gets nods from both girls,” Well your moms must’ve made them for you before..” She trails off when both girls shake their heads, Mal looks down at the bowls in front of her. “You know, to cheer you up when you're sad? Your moms, your parents never..”

“They’re not exactly the comforting type,” Uma says, shrugging as if it's no big deal. 

“But, even villains have to love their kids... Right?” Lonnie sounded so sad, so unsure of herself, a tear escaped from one of her eyes and Mal caught it and flicked it into the creamy batter quick as lightning.

“Yeah. Well, better mix this up and get them into the oven. I’ll be out with the other girls in a while, promise.” Mal says, mixing the tear into the creamy batter.

“‘Kay, bring cookies!” Lonnie says as she leaves

“No promises!” Uma calls out as the door was shutting.

“Okay, help me pour the marble stuff into this bowl,” Mal says, almost struggling to lift the marble bowl.

“Told you it was heavy,” Uma says putting one hand on the marble bowl to help Mal and the other in keeping the big bowl of creamy batter in place.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Mal mutters as they pour the batter together. “Okay, now twenty turns while incanting. Do I repeat the incantation until I finish two turns or just stop incanting?”

“Time it so you incant once?”

“Helpful. I’ll incant as I turn, you count, tell me when to stop.” Mal orders and starts incanting as she starts stirring. 

__

_Take his heart_  
_And lay it at my feet._  
_Fill him with a sense of awe_  
_For strength and beauty and promise_  
_Under the constellation of Orion and the star Procyon._  
_Breathe Love into him. Aloft the_  
_Moment this biscuit becomes him,_  
_Moving past his parted lips_

A second late Uma calls for her to stop. “Ugh, my arm hurts,” Mal says shaking her arm as the oven starts screaming. Uma stops it and grabs the bowl of batter. Having prepared a cookie sheet ahead of time and started heating up the oven earlier. Uma scoops out the dough onto the cookie sheet, emptying the bowl and putting ten minutes on the timer on the oven before putting them into the oven and starting it.

“Now we wait.”

____

“Why was Audrey talking about you joining the cheer squad?”

____

Uma groans but asks, “What’d you hear?”

____

“That she was appalled Benny-boo would ask her to let you try out. Then some black haired chick said to give you a chance and then there was some argument that ended with Audrey trying to find you so you could try out.” Mal says a small smirk on her face.

____

“So glad she didn’t find me. Harry and I made a stupid bet. I lost. Now I gotta try out for cheerleading.”

____

“Yeah, Gil added into the argument that you didn’t even want to do it because it’s not a real sport but you lost a bet, which is why Audrey started hunting you down.”

____

“I’m going to kill him.”

“And break poor Jane’s heart?”

____

“You’re the one destroying her self esteem.”

____

“Hey, it was destroyed before I got here. I’m just reaping the benefits of Auradon.” Mal says with an innocent shrug before glancing at the timer. “Ugh, why do we need to wait for so long,” Mal complains.

____

“You could teach me more magic,” Uma suggests and Mal grabs her spellbook, flipping through it until she landed on a page that made her smile.

____

“ _Away from the Blessed Light, Drift into the psychic night._ “ Mal incants aiming at a ladle on the metal table. After she was done incanting it vanished. “Now you try,” Mal says, handing the book over.

____

“ _Away from the Blessed Light, Drift into the psychic night._ ” Uma incant, aiming a pot and it vanishes as well. A smile lights up Uma’s face. Most spells were hit and miss on whether Uma could do them. The girls had figured it had to do with Uma not being a fairy, like Mal and Maleficent were. “How do I bring it back?” Uma asks and Mal shrugs.

____

“The book doesn’t say. Uh, _My work is done, come back into the sun_ ” Mal tries and nothing happens. 

____

“The sun ain't shining genius.”

____

“Rhyming is hard.”

____

“ _Worldly possession sent away, come back into the light today_ Uma tries and the ladle pops back into existence.

____

“Nice. Where’s the pot?” Mal asks, looking around. 

____

“I only summoned one back. Now you try.” Uma says, handing the book back. Mal rolls her eyes but repeats Uma’s incantation anyways. They try out a few more spells, coming up with a few of their own while waiting for the cookies to finish baking.

____

 

____

“Wait, wait, I got one. _This girl really likes to chat, so give her a cat_ ” Mal says and soon enough, Uma is holding a cat. Uma raises an eyebrow at Mal who was laughing to herself.

____

“ _You think you’re so funny, but here’s a fluffy bunny_ ,” Uma says and a bunny ends up in Mal’s arms. 

____

“I wonder where these came from,” Mal asks, shifting the bunny in her arms until it stopped squirming.

____

“Yeah, maybe we shouldn’t incant animals,” Uma says putting the cat down as the Oven timer went off and retrieved the cookies from the over.

____

“ _You’re a mess of fur, go back to where you were._ ” Mal says and the bunny disappears from her hands. 

____

“Do the same with the cat, would you?”

____

“What, you don’t like her?” Mal asks but magicks the cat away at Uma’s dry look. “Anything salvageable?”

____

“Just because it’s magic doesn’t mean we’ll be good at it.” Uma says, pulling two cookies off the sheet. The rest managed to be burnt or severely overcooked.

____

“Yeah, we’re bad at baking,” Mal says and goes to grab a couple of plastic baggies for the cookies. When she came back she puts one cookie in each bag. “ Never know when you might need it.” Mal says as she hands one over to Uma.

____

“Never. But thanks.” Uma says and chucks the rest of the cookies into the trash.”Now let's go do some girls hair.” Mal groans but follows Uma out, grabbing her book and the cookies. “Oh hush, we’re getting paid.”

____

“ _I'm_ getting paid.” Mal corrects as they leave the kitchen.

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The details of the love spelled used were from Mal's Spellbook (that I borrowed from my library). Same with the friendship spell Mal used on Uma in the last chapter.
> 
> Also, my wifi currently sucks beyond belief and this was a bitch to HTML so if something isn't italicized and you think it probably should be, please tell me and I'll fix it later this week when I get good Wifi.


	4. Day 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spelling Ben and the Big Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, a summary :P
> 
> IK its late on a Tuesday, in my defence, I was sleeping all day. 
> 
> Enjoy the chapter, and also Enjoy Descendants 3 this Friday. Even if you watched the leak, support the movie by watching it on Friday!

_-Mal & Uma’s Dorm-_

“Ready to make the Beastling love you?” Uma asks as the pair get dressed for the day.

“Totally. All I have to do is corner him when no one is around and get him to eat a cookie. How hard can it be?” Mal asks, zipping up her mesh jacket.

“That rhetorical or you want me to answer?” Uma asks, pulling on one of her own jackets.

“Let’s just go to class.” Mal says, heading to the door before stopping short and recoiling with a look of disgust, “Did I seriously just say that?” Mal asks, causing Uma to chuckle before shoving the purple haired girl out the door.

_-Mathematics Class-_

“Ugh, how is it so hard to corner Ben?” Mal groans sitting down next to Uma in Math class.

“Maybe fate has decided your plan isn’t to be,” Uma says, snorting at Mal’s misfortune.

“Fuck off. What am I supposed to do? You said he doesn’t eat before games and I won’t be able to grab him before schools over.”

“You said you could guilt him into eating. Just grab him after school or after the game. Can’t be that hard, can it?”

“Don’t jinx me!” Mal hissing before groaning and dropping her head onto the table. “I can’t believe I’ve been reduced to this.”

“What? Spelling a king? How awful.” Uma says sarcastically.

“No, being friends with you and having to figure out how to get Ben alone. And you’re actually being useful.”

“Mmm, Hate you too Eggy.” 

“Fuck off Shrimpy. What the fuck is on that board?”

“Rational functions.”

“The fuck are those.”

“Functions that are rational.”

“Fuck you.” Was the last part of their conversation before the teacher started teaching and they needed to pay attention less he give them detenion.

_-Hallway-_

“I don’t know why I bother, soon enough I’ll be back on the Isle and my mom will be ruling the world.” Mal groans as she and Uma walk to Remedial goodness.

“Math helps anyways. You need to be able to do taxes.”

“The fuck are taxes?”

“Sales tax, royal tax, it’s extra money when you buy something that goes to the government. Say sales tax in 5% of whatever you bought and you bought something for $10. Then you pay $10.50 for it and the 50 cents goes to the government. Of course, some things have multiple taxes on them, and sales tax can change depending where you are, so even if you have ten dollars and you grab something that’s ten dollars, you won’t know until you get to paying how much money you actually owe. It might rack up to twelve or fifteen dollars.

“That...is super evil.”

“Yeah, hard to believe they do it here in Auradon, huh?”

“Just means it’s not as perfect as they think,” Mal says, opening the door to remedial goodness and letting Uma go in first before following.

“Girls! You’re early.” Fairy Godmother greets with a smile.

“Mr. Grant let us out of Math early, said we looked dead ” Uma explains as she sits down next to Mal, as she had down yesterday, much to Harry’s surprise. But Fairy Godmothers expression of happiness at them finally getting along was an explanation enough for Harry. Although the incorrect one.

“Well, I hope this brief reprieve will give you time to come back to life.”

“Totally.” Mal says before going quieter and talking to Uma, “You sure you don’t want to be the subject of Ben’s love?”

“Yep. Harry’s love is enough for me.”

“You have a crush on Ben.”

“Lies.”

“Girls?” Fairy Godmother calls, causing the pair to snap their heads up. “I need to step out for a moment, could you finish writing these answers?” Fairy Godmother requests.

“Sure.” Uma says, dragging Mal up to the front with her.

“Thank you, dears. Here.” Fairy Godmother says, handing over a piece of paper with all the multiple choice answers, before leaving the room.

“Have fun.” Mal says, moving to leave the podium, but Uma grabs her arm to stop her.

“Uh uh, you’re helping Eggy.”

“Make me Shrimpy.”

“ _Don’t let her lazily bask, make her help me with this task._ ” Mal immediately stayed and held her hand out for the paper.

“I hate you.”

“I know.” Uma says with a shrug and hands Mal the paper. “Read that out and I’ll write it down.”

“Fine. Mal says with a roll of her eyes and starts reading.” B) Strike down the host in revenge. C) Write a strongly worded letter expressing your disappointment in the host. D) Host your own party and invite everyone except the host of the aforementioned party.”

“What would you do?” Uma asks as she finishes the last answer.

“Probably B.”

“Same. Maybe A and B.”

“Crash the party to strike down the host? Doesn’t remind you of a certain villain?”

“Your momma crashed the party and struck down an infant.”

“Was that a yo mamma joke?” Mal asks, mock offended.

“That’d be a pathetic yo mama joke.”

“Yo momma so good, the heroes look up to her.”

“Yo momma so white, the sun puts on shades when she goes outside.”

“Yo momma so smelly, Goblins run away from her.”

“Why are you being so mean to each other? I thought you were getting along.” Fairy Godmother asks from the entrance of the classroom, Harry and Gil behind her.

“The ‘yo momma’ jokes aren’t serious Fairy Godmother. Honestly, it’s just fun between friends. Right Shrimpy?” Mal defends.

“Yeah, neither of us take offense at this. It’s stuff we did on the Isle as kids and its just nice to have some fun reliving the good times of our childhood.”

“Oh, okay. I suppose I won’t understand your lives, but so long as no one is getting hurt or offended. However, class is about to begin so please return to your seats.” Fairy Godmother says, still sounding not okay with the jokes but willing to overlook it. Uma puts down the chalk and follows Mal back to their table to bear through Remedial Goodness.

 

“Ugh, so not worth ruling the world.” Mal groans, as they head out to the locker area.

“Remedial Goodness or school in general?” Uma asks, following Mal.

“Both.” They both laugh a bit before some girls calling Mal’s name pulls their attention.

“Mal!” The pair head to the railing to look at the picnic area below with all the girls whose hair Mal had done last night.

“I love my hair! Thank you!”

“It’s great!”

“Thank you!”

“It’s fantastic Mal” 

The girls call up to the pair and Mal waves awkwardly down to them with a smile before heading to her locker.

“Look at you being Miss Popular,” Uma says, standing beside Mal as the other girl opens her locker and puts her books away.

“It’s awful. They expect me to be _nice_ ” Mal says, wincing at even saying the word.

“Yeah, it seems real awful.” Uma says sarcastically before she spies a trio of teenagers coming out one of the doors and juts her chin towards them. “Look.” 

Mal looks over at the direction Uma was indicating and sees Ben, Chad and Audrey. Mal smirks and says, “Once Audrey and Chad leave we can spell Ben.”

“Yeah, tell the whole school,” Uma grumbles, with a roll of her eyes and walks away from the lockers and leans against the railing looking down at the picnic area below, waving to the girls who noticed her and called greetings .

“Bye Benny-boo!” Audrey calls pretty loudly as she and Chad leave Ben alone. She stops when she spots Uma leaning on the railing, waving goodbye to Chad before heading over to Uma. “Hi Uma. Benny-boo told me you wanted to join the cheer squad.” She says sweetly.

“I lost a bet,” Uma states dryly.

“Well, joining the cheer squad is still the end game. Come with me and I’ll get you situated. You might not get to cheer at today’s game but you’ll definitely get to at the next one.” Audrey says, hooking her arm around Uma’s and dragging the girl off.

“Oh, what joy,” Uma says sarcastically but doesn’t stop Audrey from pulling her away. She’ll just have to get the details on how it goes from Mal later.

 

“Hey, Benny-boo!” Mal calls, just an obnoxiously as Audrey had called her farewell once the two were out of earshot. Ben walks over to Mal with a smile on his face. 

“Hey.”

“Me and Uma made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. We managed to make a few good ones this time.” Mal says holding up a bag with a cookie in it, “Want one?” 

“Oh, I, uh, I got a big game.” here comes the denial Mal knew would happen, “I don’t eat before a big game. But thank you, so, so much. Thank you. “ Ben starts backing away, “Next time, next time,” He’s just about to leave when Mal pulls out her trump card.

“No, yeah. I completely understand. ‘Be wary of treats offered by kids of villains.’ Especially when said treats are made by villain kids.” Mal says, looking disappointed and making herself curl into herself a bit.

“No,no,no” Ben says, coming back to Mal. 

“No, I’m sure every kid in Auradon knows that. Although Lonnie and the girls were more than happy to have some of the cookies we worked so hard on. I guess you don’t trust me and Uma that much.”

“No,no! I really do-”

“No, I totally get it. Be cautious, you’re soon-to-be-king of Auradon.” Mal says, pulling out the cookie, “More for me.” Ben snatches the cookie before Mal can take a bite, which is exactly what Mal wanted. 

He takes a big bite, chewing a bit before speaking, “See that? Totally trust you. And Uma. Totally.”

“How are they?” Mal asks innocently.

“They’re good. THey’re great! THey’re amazing! They’re, uh” Mal fights the urge to smirk when it was clear the potion was taking effect, “I mean, they’re chewy and, and you know, they… is that walnuts? I love walnuts. I mean, uh, you know, the… the chocolate,,, the… the chocolate… the chocolate chips are… I’m sorry. Um… Uh, they’re… They’re warm and soft. And they’re sweet… Mal, have you always had those little golden flecks in your eyes?” Ben asks, his eyes glazed with the love potion. 

“How you feeling, Ben?”

“I feel like singing your name! M~” He announces and Mal slaps her hands over his mouth before he could belt out more than the first consonant of Mal’s name.

“Don’t do that. You need to go to the big game, remember? You can sing for me after.” Mal says and Ben nods. Mal snatches the cookie from Ben’s grasp before the boy turns and leaves.

 

“Ugh, this is so lame.” Uma groans as she follows Audrey’s instructions, already in a cheer uniform. 

“It’s not! Come on, I know you can do better than that. The cheer is pretty simple.” Audrey says, actually sounding encouraging.

“Why do you care?” Uma asks, raising her eyebrows, “You don’t like me. So why do this?”

“I will not stand for anyone to insult cheerleading. It takes work!”

“ _I_ never said it doesn’t. I just said it didn’t qualify as a real sport.”

“Ugh, whatever. The cheer is pretty simple.” Audrey says, going back into teaching mode.

“I guess I’m doing this,” Uma grumbles before actually putting effort into learning the cheer.

“Good job Uma! You’re a fast learner when you put your mind to it!” Audrey yells as encouragement and continues to help Uma progress and learn the cheer in its entirety.

_-Tourney Field-_

“Uma! Uma!” Ben calls, running half dressed over to Uma, who was in a cheer uniform thanks to Audrey. She was actually going to be cheering in the game, Audrey was impressed with Uma’s progress. Dubbing her good enough to cheer in the game, so long as she stays near the back, just in case she screws something up so only a few people would notice.

“What’s up beastling?”

“Mal’s going to be in the audience right?”

“Probably? Why you asking me?”

“You’re her friend. I need her to be there. I, I can’t contain myself much longer, I feel like I’m going to burst into song just thinking about her. I need you to help me. Make sure she’s there so I can tell her just how much I love her.” Ben pleads.

“Okayyyy. I’ll try.”

“Thank you. Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou” Ben says as he runs back to the changing room to finish getting ready for the game.

Uma shakes her head, she hadn’t thought the spell would be this bad. She sighs but jogs over to the other cheerleaders, doing a quick practice before everyone arrives for the game.

 

“Harry!” Uma calls, waving Harry over before the game starts, her boyfriend jogs over to Uma who was still in her cheer uniform.

“Need a change of clothes?” Harry asks, looking at Uma’s outfit.

“No. I’m cheering in the game. I want you to sit next to Mal.”

“That gecko? Hell no. Just because you’ve weirdly forgiven her doesn’t mean I have.”

“Hell yes. Look, Ben is going to sing a song for her after the game and I need you to make sure she doesn’t bolt.”

“Ben, the same Ben you,” Harry looks around and mouths the word “love?”

“No. Because I don’t. It’s Ben, our friend who I want to help with his crush. And he wants to sing her a song so, help me make sure she doesn’t run away. Come on, she’ll hate some of it.”

“Fine, but only ‘cause you’re asking, Captain.”

“Yeah, I could be ordering you to do so.” Uma says and waves Harry away to sit in the stands.

 

“Why are you sitting next to me?” Mal asks when Harry plops down next to her.

“Uma.” Harry grunts and that’s all explanation given, despite Mal still being a bit confused.

_-After the Game-_

“What a victory!” The Announcer calls as Ben scores the winning goal. “An absolutely wonderful end to one of the best games ever. Here they come folks. The winners of the first tourn..” The Announcer’s voice fades out as Ben grabs the mic.

“Excuse me. Excuse me! Can I have your attention, please? There’s something I’d like to say.” Ben pauses, panting looking around briefly before pointing to the cheerleaders. “Give me an ‘M’!”

“M!” The cheerleaders call, shaping an M with their arms.

“Give me an ‘A’!”

“A!” The cheerleaders repeat, forming an A with their arms.

“Give me an ‘L’!”

“L!” Uma fights a smirk as Audrey seems to realize what Ben is spelling.

“What does that spell?” Ben asks.

“Mal!” Uma almosts covers her ears at the cacophony of shouts. She does when Ben gets everyone to repeat the name louder,

“I love you Mal! Did I mention that?” Ben asks, almost kissing the microphone. Uma hears Audrey whine before running off. “Give me a beat!” Ben demands, pointing at the band.

“Uno, dos, tres, quarto!” One of the band members Uma _thinks_ is Doug.

Uma groans as Ben starts singing. She knew this was coming but that didn’t mean she liked hearing the guy she had a crush on singing to her friend. Uma sighs but joins the rest of the cheerleaders in helping Ben’s song. She smiles when she sees Harry preventing Mal from making an escape from the crowd. Uma busted out laughing when Ben starts crowd surfing towards Mal and Harry has to hold her to prevent her from running for the hills.

“I love you Mal! Did I mention that?” Ben asks when he finally arrives at Mal.

Audrey comes up beside the pair with Chad right next to her. She pulls the microphone from Ben to say, “Chad’s my boyfriend now! And I’m going to the coronation with him. So I don’t need your pity date.” 

Despite the crowds' shock, Ben isn’t all that phased and grabs the microphone back, “Mal! Will you go to the coronation with me?” He asks. Mal gleefully pulls the microphone towards herself and agrees. “She said yes!” Ben says, raising his hand in victory.

“Ben, dude, we should head back, whole teams waiting for you,” Gil says, pulling on Ben’s arm to get him back down to the field. Uma can see Mal waving bye to Ben.

“What a victory. What a day for the Auradon Knights, finally winning back the trophy after so many years.” The announcer says once he gets his microphone back.

_-Swim House-_

“Nice cheer moves ” Vanora says when Uma comes into the Swim House.

“Shut up. I lost a bet.”

“No, I’m being serious. You learnt that today and you did amazing,” Vanora specifies with a smile.

“Thanks, I guess. I thought you said there was swim practice after the game today?” Uma asks, looking around at the next to the empty pool area.

“No, I said I had urgent swimming things to talk to you about after the game today.”

“So, what is it?” Uma asks.

“How would you feel meeting my grandfather?”

“What does that have to do with swimming?”

“He lives in the ocean.” Vanora says and it takes Uma a moment before she comprehends what that means.

“Wait, what? Is he… Are you… Who the hell are your parents?!”

“Ariel and Eric. Look they’re not mad at you or your mom. Well, kind of mad at your mom, but not at you. Grandad just wants to meet you and you’ll be able to meet mom and dad at Family day on Sunday which they’re excited about but my grandad wants to meet you but he can’t really leave the ocean for an extended period of time so we’d have to swim down to see him. And I completely understand if you don’t want to see him.” Vanora explains in one big panicked breath.

“Breathe. I’ll consider it. I suppose. Why does he want to meet me? Why do your parents want to meet me?”

“Well, part of it is that my dad wants to help the Isle kids however he can and he wants more information to go off of, and part of it is my mom feels bad. Ursula might’ve done some bad things, really bad things, but she’s the one who made the deal and couldn’t fulfill it. It’s not completely your mom’s fault and she feels bad you grew up on the Isle. Also I want to take you shopping so you have some clothes to wear when you meet them because I’m panicking and i don’t know if you have anything that would be good to wear on family day.” Vanora was very clearly panicking. She liked Uma and she didn’t want to lose her friend over her family.

Uma was nodding along but stopped when Vanora finished, “Family day?”

“This Sunday. Most of the students' parents are going to be coming and stuff. Can I take you shopping on Friday?”

“Sure. Can we bring Mal, ‘cause I’m pretty sure she doesn’t own anything good.” Uma requests and Vanora chuckles a bit but nods.

“Yeah, totally. The more the merrier.” Vanora smiles for a moment before it turns into a smirk. “Wanna race?” 

“Hell yeah,” Uma says and the pair dive into the closest pool and start racing.


	5. Day 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mal's Date! And Harry is suspicious...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also! FYI! I always believed that Evie made any outfits of Mal's that are Isle-y, which is why I have Mal picking out a dress. 
> 
> Also, how did y'all like D3?

_-Mathematics class-_

“This still makes no sense,” Mal says as they exit the class.

“You’re doing fine.”

“I know I am. Doesn’t mean this stuff makes sense to me.” Mal says with shrug.

“Mal!” Both girls turn around to see Ben running down the hall towards them. “Mal, would you like to go on a date with me later today?”

“WHat?’ Mal squeaks.

“She means she would love to go on a date with you. Casual or formal?”

“Casual, we’ll be doing quite a bit of walking,” Ben says and then hurries away to his next class. 

“Come on, we have class.” Uma says, pulling Mal along, delivering her to her class before heading off to chemistry.

_-Uma & Mal’s Dorm Room -_

“Ben asked me out on a date!” Mal exclaims as she bursts into their dorm room. Uma was sitting at the table doing her chemistry homework. The door slammed shut behind her.

“Yes. I was there. I am the reason you agreed.”

“It’s in a few hours! What do I do? What do I wear?”

“Something casual.”

“Uma! Help me!” Mal pleads.

“Fine. Did you get anymore details beyond a time?”

“No.”

“Then do your homework and I’ll figure out your outfit you hopeless moron,” Uma says, getting up and heading to Mal’s closet.

A couple of minutes later there were a few dresses laid out on Uma’s bed. Mal got up and stood next to Uma, looking at all of the dresses. She debated for a hot minute before sighing.

“I don’t know, none of these are really me.”

“Yeah, cause they’re mine.”

“You know what I meant.”

“I do. I do have a couple of other options. I didn’t give you them because one’s really plain and the other is less you than those ones.” Uma says, grabbing two other dresses from her dresser and hanging them up. One was a black lacy halter top dress with an artic blue slip under it. The other was black and white, the top was a sweetheart neckline with off-the-shoulder sleeves that was all black while the rest of the dress was plain white. 

“Where’d you get this black and white one?” Mal asks, fingering the dress.

“Emma gave it to me. Said it was an old dress she found in the back of her closet she’d never wear. So she gave it to me. It used to be longer, but I cut it at the knees cause I didn’t like the length.”

“I like this one better than the black and blue one. But, could we colour it?”

“With what?”

“Magic. Can I?”

“Sure. I don’t really like the dress anyways.”

“Perfect. _Dress Dress, I must express, make yourself fit to impress_ ” Mal says and a flurry of intricate purple and green designs appear on the white part of the dress. Mal could make out dragons among the nonsensical designs. “Now this is me.”

“If you say so.” Uma says, packing up all her dresses into her dresser, “Why don’t you throw that on and we can figure out accessories. Since you’re so fashionably challenged?”

“Shut up.” Mal grumbles but disappears into the bathroom to change into the dress. 

Uma had a couple of accessories laid out in front of her when Mal came out of the bathroom. “What do you think?” Mal asks, causing Uma to turn around and look at her. 

“Not bad. Find some comfortable shoes.” Uma says, gesturing for Mal to go to her own closet, which the girl does and pulls on some chunky boots. Uma wraps a scarf around Mal’s neck when the purple haired girl comes closer to her.

“Really?”

“Why not? Here.” Uma says, handing over a plain black leather jacket, “Now, what do you want to do for make up?”

“Oh shit! Make up. I don’t know how to do make up. Evie gave me some, but I don’t know what to do with it.” Mal says, pulling on the jacket and rushing over to her stuff and pulling out the make up bag Evie gave her.

“You’re absolutely useless, you know that?” Uma says, gesturing for Mal to sit down across from her.

“You know how to do make up?”

“No. I wake up like this.” Uma says sarcastically, fluttering her eyes a bit to pull attention to the aqua eyeshadow on her lids.

“Whatever. Help me?”

“Yeah yeah.” Uma mumbles, opening the bag and pulling everything out to give Mal a bit of a make over.

“Why do you care so much about helping me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re lending me a dress-”

“I don’t want that thing back, you marked it,”

“-you’re doing my make up, helping me pick out accessories. I know we’re friends but, I guess I don’t understand why you’re going to such lengths to help me.”

“You’re my friend Mal, a hopeless moron with fashion and make up, but a friend. Of course I’m going to help you get ready for your date. You’d be panicking and running around like a chicken with its head cut off it I wasn’t.”

“I wouldn’t be that bad.” Mal complains and Uma stops what she’s doing to give Mal a ‘really?’ look. “Okay, I might’ve been. I’ve never been on a date before!”

“Obviously.”

An hour later Mal was all dolled up and gazing at herself in the mirror. 

“You could give the Evil Queen a run for her money with how much you’re looking in that mirror,” Uma says, sitting on her bed by the mirror.

“I’m just, not used to seeing myself like this. I look so different. I look… I look like a princess.”

“Not quite. Still, need the tiara.” Uma says, seemingly remembering the accessories she had picked out for Mal, grabbing a few rings and some bracelets and handing them over to Mal as the other girl spoke.

“My mom was never big on beauty, but, wow. I look, not like myself. How do you look so much like you when you wear makeup?” Mal asks, mindlessly putting on the rings and bangles.

“I don’t wear a lot. And I don’t doll myself up. I put on some foundation or concealer to hide blemishes and then eyeshadow or eyeliner. You wanted to be all dolled up.”

“I did not request to be all dolled up.”

“You want me to redo it?”

“No! I mean, I look nice like this, right?” Mal says, turning to Uma for confirmation. Before she could give it there was a knock at the door. Uma got up and walked to the door, opening it to a shy looking Ben holding two helmets under his arms. Uma walked out of the doorway so the lovebirds could see each other, and also to grab Mal’s jacket so she wouldn’t forget it.

“For the first time ever, I understand the difference between pretty and beautiful.” Ben says as though in a trance before holding out one of the helmuts. “I hope you like bikes.”

“Have her back before sundown.” Uma orders as she gives Mal her jacket and then ushers the girl out the door.

_-Gil & Harry’s dorm room-_

“Has Uma been acting odd to you?” Harry asks. He didn’t get a chance to ask Uma about Mal calling her shrimpy yesterday and it had been bugging him ever since.

“You mean aside from not threatening to chop Mal’s head off for calling her shrimpy?” Gil asks from his place at the side of the room lifting weights,and shrugs adding,”She’s cheerleading?”

“She’s doing that cause she lost a bet. And yeah, that’s been bugging me. She hates being called Shrimpy. She can’t stand even hearing it when its not directed at her.” Harry explains, flopping down onto his bed. 

“Maybe she and Mal put aside her differences? And she accepted the nickname?” Gil posits, though he doesn’t sound too sure of it himself.

Harry snorts before answering, “Yeah, it’d be a cold day in hell when that happens.” Before Gil could respond a knock sounded at the door before it opened and Uma appeared.

“Hey guys, Malsy went off on a date with Ben.” She greets, shutting the door behind her and sitting down at the table in the middle of the room.

“How awful. What’s with you and her?” Harry asks, sitting up and facing his captain.

“What do you mean?”

“You two are friendly.”

“That’s cause we’re friends Harry.” Uma says slowly, as if she was explaining something to a toddler.

“Your friends with the Gecko who destroyed your reputation and bullied you for years.” Harry was definitely suspicious. She didn’t even treat him like a friend until three years after they met, and he’d never done anything mean to her!

“She apologized. Besides, Auradon’s all about fresh starts right? Why can’t I give her one?” Uma asks, sounding not exactly like herself.

“Captain, I don’t mean to overstep, but you don’t sound like yourself.” Gil says carefully, putting down his weights.

“You don’t know me Gil. We met four days ago.”

“We met twelve years ago and I can say with certainty that yer not acting like yourself Captain.” Harry states, standing and severely suspicious.

“People change Harry. Maybe I’m not acting like how you want me to act, but I think I’d know if I wasn’t acting like myself.” Uma was getting angry, glaring at both the boys.

“Maybe, but you also wouldn’t tell us if you weren’t. You’ve hated Mal for years, but now you’re all buddy buddy. Whispering and going off alone together. We haven’t seen you outside of classes in days.”

“You saw me the day before yesterday.”

“You let Mal, Mal of all people, call you Shrimpy and you didn’t even blink!”

“So what! Why are you so upset Harry? Are you upset I’m not spending time with you?! My life doesn’t revolve around you!” Uma yells before storming out of the room. Silence rang through the room for a couple of minutes before Gil broke it.

“That could’ve gone better.”

“Do you think Mal could be controlling her?” Harry asks, sitting back down on the bed.

“I.. don’t know that much about magic Harry.” Gil says with a shrug, a moment later Harry’s eyes light up with an idea.

“Yeah, but my mom does.”

“She’s on the Isle though, we can’t exactly talk to her.”

“Family day is on Sunday. FG was talking about letting us video call our parents tomorrow during Remedial Goodness since we couldn’t go see them.”

“But Mal and Uma will be there, won’t they get suspicious if you start asking about magic?”

“Yeah, that’s why I plan on asking FG if I can call my parents tonight.” Harry says before fleeing the room to go to the Headmistress’s office.

_-Tourney Field-_

“Ugggghhh, I can’t believe Harry.” Uma complains as Audrey and her set up for Cheer Practice. There wasn’t really much to set up, so they were just walking around making sure there weren’t any clumps that one of the girls could trip over and talking.

“Why?” 

“He thinks I’m acting weird because I’m friends with Mal.” Uma grumbles, grabbing a clump of grass the Tourney team pulled up when they were practicing earlier.

“Why is that weird?” Audrey asks, she wasn’t the biggest fan of Mal, but she’s sure the girl has some redeeming qualities, deep down.

“Because she’s bullied me for a decade. She dumped shrimp in my hair when we were six, absolutely destroyed my rep to the point where my own ma wouldn’t let me into the house for a year. But she apologized for all that bullcrap!” Uma exclaims.

Audrey stops walking and looks at Uma, “I might be from Auradon, but even I wouldn’t be friends with a girl who bullied me just because she apologized. I kind of agree with Harry, which is weird in and of itself, that it’s weird that you, who Vanora tells me is incredibly suspicious of everyone and completely distrusting, would trust her after an apology. “ Audrey paused, thinking for a moment before adding,”Actually, now that I think about it, the girl Vanora told me about, doesn’t match up with the you I know.”

“People change. Why is that so hard to understand?!” Uma yells, frustated with everyone in her life.

“People don’t change that much in three days.”

“You hated me-”

“No I didn’t!” Audrey exclaims, not even letting Uma finish her sentence, “I didn’t trust you. But all you’ve done since coming here is shown that you want to be good. Ben and Jane have been telling me about what you do and how you act and you’re nice. You are trying to be good, and help people. I’m growing to trust you, and I wanted to see first hand what you’re like, that’s why I fought you to be on the squad. You’re a good person Uma. Everything I’ve seen, you help others, you learn quickly and do your best to be good and it’s amazing! The only thing I don’t understand about you is how you’re friends with Mal. Who has shown time and time again that she doesn’t want to be a better person. She might be doing nice things for the other girls, but she’s still mean and cruel. She trips Chad half the time, I’ve seen her cheating, and skipping class. She uses magic to solve her problems-”

“I use magic too, does that make me a bad person?” Uma asks, at some point the pair had drifted closer so there was less than a foot of space between them.

“No. But you don’t use magic to cheat and solve any and every problem you encounter. You work to solve it. You do your work and you ask for someone’s help if you still can’t do it. You’re completely different from Mal and everything that makes her an awful person. Ben keeps trying to explain it away as her having a rough childhood but you clearly had an equally if not rougher childhood and you’re a great person!”

“Just because we both grew up on the Isle doesn’t mean our experiences are in any way equal. I had the Hooks to help me be nice. Mal was raised by the Mistress of Evil. Besides, everyone I value is here, with me. Mal has friends on the Isle that her mom could torture or kill if she doesn’t do what she wants.” Uma explains. Audrey’s chin juts out to the side at the last piece of information Uma had given her.

“Mal’s mom wants her to do something?” Audrey questions, concerned and curious.

“Shit.” Uma grumbles but before more could be said the rest of the squad comes out onto the field.

“We’re continuing this after practice.” Audrey whispers before greeting the squad and explaining what they’re doing today.

_-Fairy Godmother’s Office-_

“Fairy Godmother!” Harry shouts as he barges into her office, causing the woman to jump and clutch her hand over her heart.

“Harry! You almost gave me a heart attack! Knock please next time.” Fairy Godmother says as she calms down.

“Sorry. Can I talk to my parents today rather than tomorrow? It’s important.”

“What is it about?”

“Uma’s been acting a bit odd and I want to ask me mom if she’d been spelled.” Fairy Godmother’s hand returns to her heart at Harry’s explanation.

“Who on Earth would’ve spelled her?”

“Mal. There’s no explanation as to why those two have become friends other than magic.”

“Maybe they just put aside their differences-”

“Mal bullied Uma for a decade. She destroyed her reputation on the Isle so thoroughly her own mother kicked her out and she had to live with me for a year before she could even go back into her own house. She had to grow up watching her back more than any other kid on the Isle because one of Mal’s goons might attack her or literally anyone on the Isle would see her as easy meat to hurt. No fucking apology is going to make Uma forgive all that shit.”

“Language.”

“Please. Let me talk to my parents. I- I might be wrong but I’d rather be safe than sorry.” Harry pleads. If Uma had been spelled she would kick Harry’s arse for not realizing it and doing everything he could to stop it or undo it.

“We’ll only be able to call them tomorrow. I’m sorry Harry, but there are ways to find out without contacting your parents.” Fairy Godmother says, standing up.

“Wait, you’ll help me?”

“Of course, dear. Magic should never be used to make someone do something they don’t want to do.” Fairy Godmother says and walks to the other end of her office to the cabinet and pulls out a little bottle. “Give this to Uma and after she has drinken in, ask if she was spelled by Mal.”

Harry takes the bottle with a raised brow, “What, is it a truth serum?”

“Goodness no. It’ll undo any spells cast on Uma.”

“Oh, thanks FG.” Harry says and bolts from the office to try and find Uma.

_-Enchanted Lake-_

“You... you can’t swim?” Ben asks, completely confused. Not only had this girl spelled him to love her, she risked her life to try and help him when she thought he was in danger.

“No!” Mal says, sounding like a petulant child. Which Ben could completely understand. It was probably terrifying for her and she was probably annoyed to learn he was completely fine. Just off contemplating what to do since Mal had spelled him, probably with the cookie she gave him before the game.. Wait did that mean Uma also helped spell him? Speaking of, Uma could swim really well.

“But you live on an island!”

“Surrounded by a magical barrier!”

“Uma can swim!”

“Uma’s a fish! Ugh.” 

“You still tried to save me, despite not being able to swim?”

Mal scoffs before answering, “Yeah. And do you thank me? No! All I get is soaking wet!” She exclaims, slapping her wet dress to make a point.

“And, uh, this fancy rock,” Ben says holding up a shining white rock, “It’s yours, make a wish and throw it back into the lake.” Mal takes it, holds it for a moment before chucking it back into the lake.

Mal gets up and stalks away, grumbling under her breath stands up. Ben pulls himself out the water and rushes over,grabbing his coat and putting in on Mal’s shoulders.

Mal sits down and curls in on herself a little, pulling the jacket closer around her shoulders

“Well, I’ve already told you that I love you. Do you love me?” Ben says and Mal just shrugs and seem to curl more in on herself, clearly not wanting to talk about that, so Ben clears his throat and changes the subject, “So are Uma and Harry dating?” He had noticed the pair were very close.

“I think. I guess. They love each other. Harry practically worships the ground Uma walks on. I don’t really know what dating is but they’re in a relationship. A weird one, but a relationship.

“How is it weird?”

“They’ll let people into it, I guess? I don’t know. Uma was talking about it. She likes this guy but she’s not sure if he likes her and even if he did, he’d have to like Harry and Harry would have to like him and it’s just super complicated.” Mal explains with a shrug.

“I guess that is a little weird. Wait, how do you not know what dating it?” Ben asks

_-Tourney Field -_

“Audrey!” Harry calls running up to the brunette girl. Cheer practice had just finished.

“What?” Audrey calls back, seemingly looking around for someone when Harry manages to get to her.

“Have you seen Uma?” 

“Who do you think I’m looking for right now? She mentioned Mal’s mom having something she wanted Mal to do.”

“An evil plan probably. But you haven’t seen her?”

“She must’ve bolted the second cheer practice ended.” Audrey says, throwing her hands up in defeat when she realizes she’s lost the other girl.

“Dammit.”

“Why’d you want her?”

“It’s complicated.” Harry brushes off and runs to his room. Well he tries, he has to stop to catch his breath about halfway there because Harry is a lot of things, but a good runner he is not.

_-Ben’s Office-_

“How was your date?” Uma asks when Ben comes into his office. She was laying down on one of his couches.

“Did we have an appointment?” Ben asks, utterly confused. He had come to his office to get some peace of mind and figure out what to do about Mal.

“No, but I wanted to talk to you and everyone keeps thinking I’ve been spelled because I’m friends with Mal.” Uma grumbles, annoyed.

“Why would they think that?”

“Because she bullied me relentlessly as a child and was needlessly cruel to me. She was just doing what her mother wanted. She even apologized for it! Not that she really needed to.”

“Why wouldn’t she need to apologize?”

“Her mother made her do those things. So she’s not entirely responsible.”

“Uma, as much as I love Mal, she’s responsible for the things she does. Her mother can’t make her do anything. She’s always had a choice and she chose to bully you.” Ben says, more conflicted and pretty sure Uma actually was spelled. Ben could see an argument brewing in Uma and changed the subject before she could start, “Do you want to go swimming tomorrow?”

“Maybe, why?”

“There’s this lake out in the forest, it’s a great spot for swimming. I figured since you’re used to the sea you might appreciate something that’s not a chlorinated pool.” Ben says, telling a half-truth.

“Maybe. I’ll see if I can. I’m going shopping with Vanora and Mal tomorrow.”

“Really? What for?”

“An outfit for Family Day. I’m going to be meeting Queen Ariel and King Eric.”

“Are you ready for that?”

“Honestly? Yeah. Weirdly, I, I don’t hate them. I don’t like them, but I think they’re good people.” Uma says sounding contemplative, before completely changing the subject, “ Also did you know Audrey likes me?”

“Yeah. She’s never not. She didn’t trust you guys. But she grew to start trusting you the more she heard and saw how you wanted to be a better person.A good person.” Ben explains with a soft smile. “What’d you want to talk to me about?”

“There are a lot of kids on the Isle who are orphans, their parents abandoned them. I think we should look into rehoming them. You mentioned the Radcliffes would be willing to take in a few kids, what about other people? Others who would be willing to take in an Isle Kid and treat them like their own? Some kids are really young, there were baby’s when I left, are we just supposed to wait until they grow up, if they grow up, to bring them over or should they go to a family who’d love them?” Ben had to make an effort into paying attention and actually hearing what Uma was saying, he got so lost when she would speak about something she’s passionate about, he wanted to just do whatever she told him to without really knowing what it was. He didn’t care what it was. He just wanted to follow her every word and do anything she’d order him to do. Ben wondered for a brief moment if that was how Harry felt before throwing that thought away. 

“I didn’t think of that honestly. I’ll run a survey through the States, see who’d be willing to take in an Isle kid.” Ben says in his best official voice. 

“When can we get the form out to the Isle kids?” Uma asks.

“After my coronation. I’ve already contacted all the kingdoms willing to take in kids from the Isle and they all agreed to your proposition. Now I just need to wait until I’m king to send out the form so I can bring them over.” Ben explains, Uma nods and shifts her position on the couch. Ben noticed that she was still in her cheer uniform. She must’ve come here after cheer practice,Ben thought absently before saying without thinking, “You look nice in that uniform.”

“And i look ever better out of it.” Uma says immediately after Ben’s compliment which causes the prince to turn red as a tomato. Uma blinks a couple times, opening her mouth to say something when she looks over at Ben and proceed to fall off the couch laughing.

“W,w,wh, what?!” Ben spluttered before squeaking out a word. Uma still didn’t respond, laughing her ass off on the floor. There was a hot minute with Ben panicking over the fact that while Uma’s statement was probably correct, it was entirely inappropriate and he _definitely_ should not be thinking about Uma like that, he was dating Mal. Although the girl had spelled him and apparently spelled Uma but that wasn’t relevant at the moment. Even if he did like Uma like that, _which he doesn’t_ , she was with Harry and he’d have to talk to Harry before he could even think of talking to Uma and she probably doesn’t even like him that way. Although Mal did mention that Uma had a crush on someone but he’s pretty sure she meant another Isle kid, maybe Gil, and definitely _not him_ . Before Uma stopped laughing and said something.

“Sorry beastling. It’s, it’s just that’s how compliments would go on the Isle. So it’s an automatic thing to finish them for the assholes who’d do it. Not that you’re an asshole but, _ohmygod your face!_ i didn’t know humans could turn that red!” Uma looked like she was working to keep herself from laughing again. The red slowly seeped from Ben’s face as Uma explained and he stopped panicking, as much.

“Oh. Harry lets people say that to you?” Ben asks, clearing his throat immediately afterwards and then going to sit behind his desk. Uma snorts and climbs back onto the couch.

“No, he tends to threaten and-or maim whoever says those things when he’s around. So people really only say those things to me when I’m alone.”

“Oh.”

“Did you know Vanora is Ariel’s daughter?”

“Yeah, she didn’t tell you?”

“Not until she told me her granddad, whose is also my _uncle_ wants to meet me.”

“Wait, King Triton is your uncle?”

“Yeah, he and my mom are siblings. Ariel is my cousin.”

“Oh. I, never knew that. Cool.”

“I guess. What were you going to work on?”

“I was actually going to think about some things. I just wanted some peace and quiet away from everyone.”

“Oh oops.” Uma says, looking apologetic, “sorry?” She adds with a shrug.

“It’s fine,” Ben answers with a chuckle, waving away her apology., “Did you, uh, did you know Mal spelled me?”

“How do you know?” Uma asks, sounding suspicious.

“Uh, magic bathwater? Washes away enchantments. Can’t be too careful in a world of magic.” Ben explains which was only partially untrue. The Enchanted Lake wasn’t exactly bathwater but he did swim in it at least once a month just to make sure he hadn’t been spelled.

“Dammit. Look Ben-”

“It’s fine. Mal just has a crush and didn’t think it’d go anywhere on it’s own, right?”

“Totally. Speaking of, you’re back, so I should probably go check up on Mal.” Uma says and waves goodbye as she leaves Ben’s office.

_-Mal & Uma’s Dorm Room-_

“Hey!” Uma calls as she comes into her dorm room, shutting the door quietly behind her.

“Hey, I got your dress wet. I’m sorry.” Mal says, she’s dressed in pajamas and Uma’s dress is hanging in front of her.

“It’s your dress now, I don’t care what you do to it. I’m surprised you’re the one that got it wet though.”

“We were at a lake and I lost sight of Ben, I got in to see if he was hurt but he ended up saving me because I still can’t swim.”

“I know. So I take it your date went will since you got saved by your prince?”

“Shut up. And I guess it went well? I don’t know. It went. Neither of us are dead or injured so I guess that means it well.”

“Good. I’m going to go get changed and then go to bed. Just leave the dress out to dry.” Uma says grabbing her Pj’s and changing out of her cheer uniform. Mal leaves the dress and heads to her own bed, getting under the covers and turning off the lamp by her bed, leaving Uma in a dark room lit only by her own bedside lamp.

“Goodnight.” Mal whispers when Uma turns off her own lamp after climbing into bed.

“Goodnight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I have any idea what I'm doing? Probably not. Is that stopping me? No, probably should bcuz I don't know how much sense this story is making. Is the story almost done? Yes, in terms of my writing it. I still have to post like three chapters. 
> 
> Also, comments and kudos are love, luvs.
> 
> Toodles~


	6. Day 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Video call with the Parents and Shopping!

“Children, excuse me. Um, as you know, uh, this Sunday is Family day here at Auradon Prep. And because your parents can’t be here due to, uh, distance, we’ve arranged for a special treat.” Fairy Godmother says near the end of Remedial Goodness, pulling out a large television on a cart. She turns it on, to reveal Maleficent, Ursula, Gil’s mother, Captain Hook and his wife. The group was clearly in Maleficent’s lair, on a small couch. Maleficent, Mrs. Gaston and Captain Hook were sitting on the couch while Ursula and Emma were standing behind it. Captain Hook was in front of Ursula, while Emma was standing behind Mrs. Gaston.

“I don’t see nor do I hear anything,” Maleficent says, squinting at the camera.

“Not too surprising,” Ursula remarks, causing the fairy to turn around and glare, before opening her mouth for a remark that never comes, because Emma leans over and gets the computer up and running and calls,

“Hey, look, kids.”

“Mal!” Maleficent calls, moving closer and squinting to see her daughter. None of the kids had come up to the TV. Fairy Godmother motions for them to come up with a gentle smile on her face and all of the kids get up hesitantly. Uma and Mal stick close together, almost clutching each other like a lifeline.

“Hi, mom,” Mal says with a little wave.

“Harry, how’re you enjoying school?” Captain Hook asks, pulling Maleficent back onto the couch with his hook.

Harry just groans in response which gains him little chuckles from his parents.

“Uma, what are you doing hanging around that lizard?” Ursula asks, eyeing the pair with suspicion

“Mal and I have set aside our differences, we’re no longer feuding just because that’s what you want.” Uma states.

“Seriously?” Maleficent asks.

“Yeah, mom. Uma’s helping me and being a friend.” Mal says, hoping her mom got the message, from the glint in her eyes, Mal’s pretty sure she did.

“Really? Okay. Uma, how’s school going? Anything interesting happen?” Emma asks, trying to change the subject.

“Kinda? I joined the swim team and the cheer team. I’m excelling in my classes, and making friends.”

“Some little fishies told me you’re meeting Ariel,” Ursula says, suspicion lacing her tone.

“Yeah, so what if I am?” Uma challenges. 

“What about you Harry? Anything particularly interesting?” Captain Hook asks, looking like he’d much rather be anywhere but between any annoyed or angry women. 

“Noooo-hey mom, how would I know if I had been spelled?” Harry asks, earning himself curious looks from the girls, Mal’s teetering on suspicious.

“Well, it depends on the kind of spell. A love spell would have you acting as though you couldn’t help yourself from being with the perpetrator of the love spell. But most spells would have a defensive mechanism in place, so if someone questions the victim if they’re spelled they immediately rebuff and deny that its possible in a way that’s abnormal for them. If it's a spell that alters one's emotions then they often won't remember ever being spelled.” Emma explains.

“Okay, thanks.”

“Why? Has someone tried to spell you?”

“No, just wanting to make sure I know what to look out for. Don’t want someone to spell me and not know it.”

“Gil, mon caneton, are you well?” Mrs. Gaston asks in the lull that follows Harry’s statement.

“Yes, mama.”

“I’m glad, are you behaving? Trying your best in your classes?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you made any friends? Any special friends?”

“Uh, yeah. I’m friends with this girl, Jane. She’s actually the Fairy Godmother’s daughter.” Gil says, a light blush dusting his cheek.

“Good, I’m happy for you, Caneton, and I miss you dearly.”

“I miss you too, mama.”

“Ugh, enough with the emotions.” Maleficent says, “Mal, when will I be able to see you again, in person? This isn’t the same.”

“Uh, probably after the coronation.”

“When!”

“Friday, 10 am.” Mal says and hits the hang-up button in a panic before her mother could say anything more. Everyone turns to look at her and she sinks a bit into Uma, “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. We were more or less done talking. Thanks for the treat, Fairy Godmother.” Uma says and pushes Mal a bit so the pair can get their stuff and leave the room.

“Hey, so I forgot to ask earlier, but me and Vanora are going shopping later today, did you want to come?” Uma asks when they had gotten out to the lockers.

“What are we shopping for? And who's paying?”

“Clothes for family day. I’m meeting King Eric and Queen Ariel, and you are meeting Ben’s family, so we can’t be ourselves.”

“Can’t I just borrow some of your clothes?”

“No. I don’t have that many clothes I’m willing to lend you.”

“Thanks.”

“And Vanora has offered to pay. Ben has also donated about $150 to our shopping cause.” Uma says, pulling out the money Ben had given her earlier that day.

“Ooo, thank you Benny-boo,” Mal says, taking the money from Uma and pocketing it. “Sure, let's go shopping.”

“Vanora!” Uma calls, waving for the dark-haired girl to come over to them.

“Ready to go?” She asks once she meets up with the pair.

“Definitely. Need something not VK-y to meet Ben’s parents.”

Vanora laughs as she guides them to a car that’ll take them into town, “I’m sure Belle wouldn’t mind, King Adam might though. He’s a bit of a stickler.”

“Stickler as in ignoring innocent children dying on an island?” Uma grumbles as they near the car.

“Yeah.” Vanora answers simply, the other two were shocked into silence long enough that they got into the car and Vanora gave instructions to the driver to take them into town. “So, anything specific we’re looking for?”

“You’re the only Auradonian here, you tell us what they’d expect of us.”

“Well, its a garden party kind of. So cocktail or summer dresses. Flats or wedges would be best really.” Vanora explains.

“We’re going to trust you to guide us in the right direction,” Mal says after a moment of confused silence from her and Uma.

“Of course. I will totally make sure you’re both fully situated. Did you want to do practice conversations?” Vanora asks.

“Practice Conversations?” Uma asks, confused.

“We practice potential conversations you might have with my parents or Mal might have with Ben’s. Talk about the hard questions. “

“Hard questions?” Mal squeaks, not looking forward to those.

“ ‘How did you and Ben get together?’ ‘Do you feel bad about stealing him from Audrey?’ ‘Are you like your mom?’ ‘Are you going to destroy us? Hurt us if we don’t invite you to a party?’ ‘Are you really a villain?’ Those kinds of things. We’ll probably go more political with you, Uma, because part of meeting my parents is so my dad knows more about VKs so he can properly build a school and boarding house or something to help them.” Vanora explains.

“They’re doing what now?” Mal asks, not having known about what King Eric had planned.

“Oh, yeah, King Eric and Queen Ariel want to help the VKs however they can. First, I’m hearing about a school though.”

“Oh, yeah, they texted me about it earlier this morning. I think they want it to be a boarding school so the VKs can just live at the school, potentially give them an allowance so they can go buy themselves some things too. I don’t know. Details are probably going to be hashed out later.” Vanora explains.

“An allowance would be good. We don’t have any money, really, so being able to buy stuff on our own, stuff that would be our own, would be great.” Uma says.

“I’ll tell them,” Vanora says, already typing on her phone. A few minutes pass before the car stops and the driver honks his horn twice. “We’re here!” Vanora says excitedly, climbing out of the car and holding the door open for Mal and Uma. 

“Holy shit,” Uma says, looking at the large building, larger than any building on the Isle.

“This is the mall. Best place to shop for clothes.” Vanora says, opening her arms wide.

“I agree with Uma. Holy Shit.”

“Stop swearing, let's go in,” Vanora says, gesturing for the two to follow her as she heads inside. 

“Any clothing rules for this Family day thing?” Mal asks as they walk in, looking around at all the shops, then up when she noticed the place had more than one floor.

“Dresses or Skirts aren’t allowed to be more than 4 inches above the knee. No cleavage. And your neckline can’t be anymore than 3 and a half inches below your neck without a cover,” Vanora explains.

“So, we’re being super modest. Got it.” Uma says.

“Well, not super modest, we can still show our ankles and calves.” Mal says as they walk, Vanora leading them into one of the stores.

“Let’s look around, if anything feels like you or something you’d want to wear, grab it and put it in this bag.” Vanora says, grabbing one of the mesh shopping bags the store provides. 

“Got it. No stealing.” Mal says and wanders off on her own, picking up her own mesh bag.

“Let’s go, help me find something that’ll impress your parents.” Uma says, wrapping her arm around one of Vanora’s and they walk into the store.

“Be yourself, that’ll impress them.”

“I’m sorry, did you not tell me that we’re going shopping to avoid me being myself?”

“The leather-pirate-dont-mess-with-me thing you had going on. Keep the powerful-goddess-leader thing.”

“Powerful-goddess-leader?”

“Yeah, you exude it. When you walk down the hall, you exude this energy that tells everyone that you are not to be messed with, you’re powerful, you’re a goddess, and they will feel the wrath if they mess with you. It’s insane. I’m pretty sure Chad wet himself once when you were walking down the halls and looked at him.” 

Uma chuckles a little at the end, stopping to look at a dress.

“That, reminds me of Jane.” Vanora says, looking at the teal dress with a critical eye.

“That’s not a bad thing.”

“No, but you want your dress to say you not someone else. “

“Yeah,” Uma says and moves on from the dress, stopping every so often to look at one or another but ultimately deciding on not. By the time they meet up with Mal, the fairy had a few dresses in her bag while Uma and Vanora had none.

“No luck?” Mal asks, spying their bag.

“This shop ain’t really me.” Uma says with a shrug. “But, you got stuff, which you should definitely try on so we can judge.”

Mal scoffs but salutes and says, “Yes, ma’am.” Before heading off to the changing rooms, Vanora and Uma following closely.

Mal comes out in a black and purple dress. It went down to her knees, with a marble pattern of black and purple. It had little shoulder triangles, and went she turned around there was a bit of a gap in the back.

“It’s cute.”

“It’s definitely you.”

“But are you sure you want to wear it to meet Ben’s parents?” Uma asks, raising an eyebrow. Nothing was wrong with the dress per-se, but it didn’t really scream, meet the parents.

Mal looks at herself in the mirror and shakes her head, going back into the changing room.

“What does one wear to meet their boyfriend’s parents?”

“I’m pretty sure I was wearing a dirt and grime covered dress and apron.”

“You have a boyfriend?”

“Harry?”

“Harry’s your boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

“Huh, with how much he flirts-”

“That’s just his personality.”

“Guys.” Mal calls, she was out again but this time in a white shirt and a purple pencil skirt,

“You should probably wear a jacket with that.” Uma advises

“I know. I just, couldn’t find one here. Not in the colour I wanted anyways.”

“It’s a bit, plain.”

“Should it not be?” Mal asks, looking concerned.

“Do you want to see what others have worn in the past?” Vanora asks, messing around on her phone.

“ _Yes_ ” Mal says, walking over to Vanora and looking at her phone, swiping through the pictures of the princesses at Family Day last year. 

“That help?” Vanora asks when Mal had turned back to the mirror to look at herself.

“Yeah. I’m not going to try on the other dress. Let’s go to a different shop.” Mal says, heading into the changing room.

“Can I see?” Uma asks, leaning over Vanora’s shoulder to see her phone.

“Yeah,” Vanora hands her her phone. Uma swiped through the pictures until Mal came out then they got up and the trio walked out. Vanora guides them to a slightly different shop. This time the group stays together and both girls get a couple of options, heading to the dressing rooms while Vanora sits outside to judge.

Mal comes out first in a black tank top with a flared skirt. It had a beige slip with a floral lace green pattern over it.

“Not bad. A different top would be better, but it looks good.” Vanora says. Uma exits her dressing room, raising an eyebrow at Mal.

“If the fabric underneath the lace were a different colour, it’d be better.” Uma says, causing Mal and Vanora to turn to her. She was wearing a dark blue halter dress. The neckline was white with a little jewel in the center. There was a main body to the dress and two little cape-like overlapping things.

“I don’t like that on you.” 

“Neither do I, wasn’t even planning to show you, but I wanted to judge you.”

“Aw, thank you.” Both girls head back into their respective changing rooms. Mal comes out first once more, in a green dress this time. It was a fit’n’flare, with a straight neckline but a lace cover that made went into short sleeves and gave the dress a boat neck. The lace that made the boat neck also covered the entire dress, even down the skirt. 

“Cute.” 

Uma comes out a minute later, when Mal is looking at herself in the mirrors. She has a peacock blue dress on. There was a solid blue jewel-neckline dress that went down to roughly four inches above her knee. Over that was a long-sleeved blue lace dress. The dress had an asymetrical hem, with one side going below her knee, and the other going above it. The sleeves weren’t tight but they weren’t severely loose, but they flare out a couple inches past Uma’s elbow. There was also a little sash that went around her midsection.

“Cool.” Vanora says, the dress was simultaneously Uma and not Uma, like something was missing. Mal turns around to face Uma, having heard Vanora and wanted to see. 

“You look like a pirate.”

“You’ve never met a pirate.”

“That’s the vibe I’m getting!” Mal raises her hand in defence, shrugging.

“You look cute. Like the girl Benny-boo would want to bring home to Mommy and Daddy.”

“You think?” Mal asks, turning around to look back into the mirror. The dress was nice but-

“Yeah, if the girl Benny-Boo was dating is a pretty princess.” Uma says, leaning an arm on Mal’s shoulder to look at her in the mirror. 

“Yeah.”

“You going to be a princess Mal?” Uma says quietly, not loud enough for Vanora to hear.

“No. Never.” Mal says, backing away and going back into the change room.

“Uma? Could I get some pictures? We seem to like the dress so we can compare it to future ones.” Vanora says, holding up her phone and snapping a few pictures of Uma in the dress. When she was done, Uma changed out of her dress and followed the other two girls who had been waiting on her out. They went to a few more shops. Uma finding mostly nothing, Mal finding a nice white t shirt covered in white lace, which she bought and now only had to find a skirt to go with. Because she had decided she was definitely going to wear a skirt.

At the last place they were going, Uma found a teal dress that she immediately took to the dressing room, draggin Vanora along with her. Leaving Mal to look at skirts alone. 

When Uma came out of the dressing room, she immediately went to the mirrors in a little alcove. The dress was a nice teal, it went down to her knees, had a thick sash around her waist that was the same colour as the rest of the dress. While the dress had a scoop neckline,but there was a wrap that wrapped around her back and clipped together on one shoulder.

“Some accessories and you’d look like a real goddess.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“Maybe, but she’s right, you look nice. It’s a little plain, but it looks nice.” Mal says, coming into the changing room area.

“Thanks. I just don’t know. I’ve never been this indecisive before.” Uma says, face scrunching up with distaste.

“Well, maybe just think about it. I’m gonna try on some skirts, so, sit and judge.” Mal says before disappearing into a changing room.

“So demanding.” Uma mutters, but moves to sit with Vanora.

“Wait, I want pictures.” Vanora says, snapping a few before Uma comes over and sits with Vanora until Mal comes out in one of the skirts, her white lace top on. The skirt was purple and really poofy.

“No.”

“Immediately?” Vanora asks, turning to Uma.

“It looks awful.”

“I, agree with Uma.” Mal says, looking at herself in the mirror, shaking her head in distaste. She quickly heads back to the changing room and to change. The next skirt she came out in was a pleated metallic emerald green that went a little past her knees. 

“Not bad. Pretty cute.”

“Yeah, you could wear a belt with it too if you don’t like the waistline of the skirt.” Vanora suggests.

“Yeah, maybe. I really like it. But there’s one other I’m going to try on.”

“Alright, then I’m going to get changed as well.” Uma says, getting up and going back into her own changing room. 

Vanora stops Mal before she can change, getting some pictures before letting her go.

Mal comes out before Uma, in another green skirt, this one more of a forest green. There seemed to be a pleated skirt over a normal skirt, of which only ¼ was really visible. Most of the straight skirt was covered by a secondary pleated layer.

“That looks nice too.” Vanora says as Uma exits her changing room.

“Not bad,” Uma says as she sits back down beside Vanora.

“Which one is better for meeting Ben’s parents in though?”

“The metallic one. It’s more you.”

“It’d probably match your dragon scales,” Vanora adds.

“I can’t turn into a dragon?” Mal says, confused.

“Why not? Your mom can, and you have magic.”

“I guess I’ve never tried.”

“We’ll experiment later.” Uma says, “Change and let's go find accessories”

“And a blazer,” Vanora adds as Mal heads to the change rooms.

“Why a blazer?”

“Mal’s outfit would look better with a blazer, no?”

“You have a point,” Uma says standing up, “I’m going to buy this dress. I like it better.” Uma says, holding up the teal dress. 

“Awesome. Maybe we could put your hair up. Or half up? We could get it professionally styled.”

“Or I can magic it into a style.”

“Wow, magic really lets you spend less money.” 

“Too bad it couldn’t conjure up a dress for both of us,” Mal says as she comes out of the dressing room. 

“Yeah, too bad. Hey, what about shoes? Should we just choose some of our own or?” Uma trails off looking at Vanora as the trio walks out of the changing area and up to the register. Mal had left the skirts that were a no in the changing room as was requested by the staff, so she only had one skirt in her hands. The skirt and dress weren’t that expensive so they were able to pay with the cash Ben had given them, but they were left with not much. 

“Maybe use your own shoes. That’s another little you element that will add to the outfit.” Vanora suggests.

“Sweet. Food or home?” Mal asks.

“Food. And we still have to shop for accessories Mal.” Uma says as Vanora leads them to the food court.

“What accessories?”

“For you? Maybe a hair clip, small necklace? We’re also getting you a blazer to go with your outfit.”

“You think it’d look better with a blazer?”

“With the right blazer.”

“We’ll talk more after food,” Mal says as they arrive at the food court.

_-Back on campus-_

They had found a nice violet blazer with short sleeves that had a little poof for Mal. Then they had gone on an accessory adventure and found a bunch of things they probably didn’t need but loved a lot and bought anyways. By the end they were tired and glad to be heading back to campus. Vanora took a different car since she had to visit a friend who lived off campus before returning. So it was only Mal and Uma in the car.

“This was so much fun. Not just the shopping but just-” Mal was smiling, she genuinely had a fun time.

“Just having fun and being yourself with your friends?”

“Yeah. After we found the family day outfits, which was stressful, it was just so much fun and so relaxing to find things I loved, no matter how ridiculous they seemed.”

“Same.” The driver honked telling them that they were back at Auradon Prep. Both Uma and Mal climbed out, making sure they had their bags and didn’t forget anything before shutting the door and waving the driver off. Uma sighs as her phone buzzes, it had been doing so all-day

“Hey, Mal, could you take this stuff back to our room? Harry’s been blowing up my phone wanting to talk with me.” Uma asks, holding out her bag for Mal to take.

“Only because I am the awesomest person in the world.” Mal says, taking the bag and heading to the dorms. Uma rolls her eyes but heads to the gazebo she had agreed to meet up with Harry at. 

_-Uma & Mal’s dorm-_

Mal puts down their shopping bags in front of the window when she got into their room and eyed her spellbook. Harry had been asking about magic earlier, and Fairy Godmother hadn’t seemed surprised at his question. Which Mal could understand, Fairy Godmother wasn’t really surprised with the more odd questions they ask, but she didn’t blink an eye when he directed the question to _his mother_. Who was apparently magic. Even her own mom was surprised at Emma answering the question with accuracy.

 _‘Harry might be on to me.’_ Mal thinks, worrying her lip as she picks up her spellbook, _‘He wanted to talk to Uma. He might be trying to undo my spell._ Mal reads the friendship spell, ingraining it in her mind once more before shutting her book and chucking it on her bed, walking out the door to head to Uma and Harry. But she stops out her door as she realizes she doesn’t know where they were meeting up. She pulls out the phone Ben had given her, debating texting Uma but decides against it. Harry might’ve already gotten to her. Instead she heads to Harry and Gil’s dorm.

“Hi Mal.” Gil says when he opens the door, looking confused.

“Hi Gil. Is Harry here?”

“No.”

“Great, because I actually wanted to talk to you, privately. Can I come in?” Mal asks when Gil wasn’t getting her hints to let her into their room.

“Oh, uh sure. Just don’t touch Harry’s stuff.” Gil says, moving out of Mal’s way.

“I won’t touch anything. Could you look me in the eyes?” Mal asks, turning to Gil after he shut the door.

“Sure,” Gil says, sounding confused but looking into Mal’s eyes like she asked.

“ _A bond of friendship is born the moment you look into my eyes. Time turns on its head and I’m given the power to a foe a friend, the exhilarating spirit of the ages rising around me._ “ Mal incants. 

“Can I look away now?” Gil asks a moment after Mal finishes her spell.

“Depends, are we friends?”

“Yeah.” 

“Then of course, what were you planning on doing today?”

“Just working out. Fairy Godmother got me real weights.” Gil says, gesturing to his weights.

“Wow.” Mal says, looking at the weights, then reading the numbers on the sides, “Those are pretty big numbers.”

“Fairy Godmother said the same. She thought it was odd I’d want such heavyweights for free-lifting, but she gave them to me anyways. She’s really nice.”

“Yeah, she really is.” Mal agrees absentmindedly. She’s more concerned with the footsteps in the hallway, Harry, loud as ever, announces his return to his room before he even slams open the door. Which is useful for Mal, because she’s already incanting by the time he spies her. _“A bond of friendship is born the moment you look into my eyes. Time turns on its head and I’m given the power to a foe a friend, the exhilarating spirit of the ages rising around me._ ” Harry barely heard any of the spell and he had been looking at Mal with anger and hatred, but that disappeared once their eyes met. 

“Uma’s looking for you,” He says, sounding friendlier than he had ever been toward her.

“I bet. But,first, can we be friends? I don’t want to fight.” 

“Of course, Gecko.”

“That nickname’s never going away,” Mal mutters as she leaves the boy's room. Mal breathes deeply as she walks to her dorm room. Ready for Uma to start yelling at her. She sincerely hopes this spell works multiple times on the same person or she was fucked. Mal takes a deep breath before opening the door to her dorm room, slipping in silently. She saw Uma, who had her back to Mal, but she was shaking. Probably with anger. _“A bond of friendship is born the moment you look into my eyes. Time turns on its head and I’m given the power to a foe a friend, the exhilarating spirit of the ages rising around me._ ” Mal incants, hoping that it would work even if she wasn’t loud enough for her target to hear. “Hey.” Mal says at a normal level, and Uma whips around, rage in her eyes disappearing the moment she met Mal’s eyes. Mal breathed a sigh of relief and Uma put a hand to her head. “You okay?” Mal asks, walking toward Uma.

“Yeah, my head just hurts is all. I feel angry, but I don’t know who or what at.”

“Maybe homework?”

“I don’t hate it as much as you.”

“You really should. Homework sucks ass.”

“That’s just cause you don’t like asking for help.”

“I don’t mind asking you for help. Oh! I have some good news. I was talking to Gil earlier and we’re friends now. Harry and I only had a short conversation, but he agreed to be my friend too. Isn’t that amazing?”

“Hell yeah. Now I don’t have to deal with Harry trying to convince me you spelled me.”

Mal puts a hand over her chest, “I would never.”

“Your magic might not even work on me, I am a demi-goddess.” Uma says, grabbing her shopping bag and heading to her closet.

“You’re a what?” 

“A demi-goddess. My grandfather is Poseidon. The greek god. My mom is King Triton’s sister. You can read in any book that King Triton is the son of Poseidon. Vanora confirmed it for me too.”

“Holy fuck.” Mal was panicking. Would her magic wear off of Uma? She could clearly spell the girl so maybe the God-ness in her blood isn’t that strong? Maybe it’s inconsequential? Or maybe she’ll have to re-spell Uma repeatedly to keep her friendship spell strong on her.

“I know, it’s insane,” Uma says, putting away the new dress she got. She heads to her vanity to put away the bracelets and hair accessories Vanora had picked out for her. Unaware of Mal’s panic. 

“Yeah, insane. Uh, do you want to pick out some shoes, for Sunday?” Mal asks, changing the subject and trying to calm herself down. She’ll deal with it when-if it becomes important.

“Sure, I’ve already narrowed it down to three, but I just can’t make a decision between them,” Uma says, grabbing three pairs of shoes out of her closet

“I haven’t even begun to make a decision.”

“Well let's start Eggy,”

“I don't even smell of egg anymore!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Uma's Dress ](https://contestimg.wish.com/api/webimage/5b518d1f0211051e62de0f3c-2-large?cozy=1)
> 
>  
> 
> [ Mal's Skirt ](http://www.bluemaize.net/im/skirts/green-skirt-5.jpg)
> 
> The links open in the page, so fair warning. Sorry for the small pic with Mal's but when I tried to link bigger pics they didn't want to work. But you can find them yoself if you google emerald pleated skirt if you care to see it more.
> 
> Ik y'all were probably expecting more with Harry and Gil but what can I say? It's how the story rolled out.
> 
> Also, Vanora has turned into a bigger character than I meant her to be when I created her. Neat.


	7. Family Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drama, Drama and more Drama!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, this isn't a Day # title bcuz honestly? The Descendants timeline gets weird now. 
> 
> Uma's hairstyle for Family Day is her Hairstyle for D3.
> 
> Also, I know it's not Tuesday. But this is actually done now, so I shall be giving you a chapter for the new couple days. So tomorrow you'll get the coronation one and then a fairly short epilogue the next day.

“How do I look?” Uma asks, twirling around to look at Mal. She had a golden armband in the shape of octopus tentacles on her left arm, a bracer on her right arm, and black fingerless leather gloves that stop on her wrists as well as a couple of tasteful rings. She was wearing her shell necklace and had found a shark brooch to hold up the wrap on her dress rather than the floral brooch the dress had come with.

“Good, do you want a little crown for your hair?” Mal asks, turning back to her mirror to fiddle with her hairpiece, debating on changing it once more.

“Nah, I’m good. How bout you, feelin good?”

“I’m terrified. But I think that, physically, I look good. Inside I am terrified. What if they hate me?”

“You do remember that you don’t love Ben and this is all part of an evil plan? Did you fail manipulation 101?”

“No. I got Ben to eat the cookie.” 

“Ben’s probably the most gullible Auradonian there is. If you could get Audrey to eat the cookie, then I’ll believe you’re a good manipulator.”

“Well, what if I don’t want to be a good manipulator?”

“Excuse me?”

“What if, what if I don’t want to do my mother’s plan? What if I don’t want to be like her? What if I wanted to be me? Whoever that is.” Mal exclaims, tears in her eyes, seemingly on the verge of crying.

“Mal. Don’t cry. That makeup isn’t waterproof.” Uma says handing Mal a tissue box. “And, if you didn’t want to do that stuff, I’d feel obligated to remind you, you don’t have much of a choice?”

“What?”

“Do the names, Evie, Carlos and Jay ring any bells?”

“Oh my god.”

“They’re still on the Isle. You fail-”

“They’ll get punished. Fuck.”

“Uh-huh. So, brush up on your mommy impression.”

“Fuck off.” Before Uma could respond to Mal, a knock sounds at the door before it being opened. 

“Ready to go soon?” Gil asks, poking his head in. Uma looks over at Mal, who still seemed upset, to answer. Harry also pokes his head into the girl’s room when they take a while to answer.

“What’s wrong, Gecko?”

“She just realized she has no choice but to do what her mother wants because her friends are at risk if she doesn’t.”

“Oh. Do you not want to go to family day?” Gil asks, stepping into the room, followed by Harry, who shuts the door behind them.

“No. I need to go. Just, give me a minute. Alone?” Mal asks and the other three leave the room.

“You look nice captain.” Harry comments, looking Uma up and down.

“Thanks. I feel nervous though. What if they hate it? What if I screw up and they no longer want to have anything to do with the Isle Kids?”

“I thought they wanted to meet you because you’re Ariel’s cousin?” Gil asks, tilting his head like a confused puppy.

“They also want to talk about Isle Kids, and since I’ll be their main contact point, their opinion of me will impact their opinion of Isle Kids in general,” Uma explains, right before Mal comes out, looking all prim and proper and not at all like she had had a freak out a minute earlier. Magic really was something. “Ready to go?” Uma asks and leads the way when Mal nods.

_-Gardens-_

“You couldn’t have made us two minutes later?” Harry asks, watching the performance down below. Uma just elbows him in response and they make their way down into the gardens themselves. They head over to the food area, where Mal snags a strawberry and Gil just marvels at the fruit before trying some of everything. Harry stays with Gil while Uma and Mal walk a bit aways. They applaud politely when the Auradonians are done their song and dance number.

“See your royals?” Mal asks, looking around.

“No. See yours?” 

“Yup, they’re taking a picture with Ben,” Mal says, gesturing to their position with her chin, raising her hand up when Ben spots her. 

“Mal!” He calls while gesturing for her to come over.

“And I must abandon you. Good luck.” Mal says before walking over to Ben.

“Good luck to you too,” Uma says, looking around for Vanora. Her attention gets pulled to a little grey and white dog with pretty long hair, who was yipping up at her. “Hi, there.” Uma says, a bit unnerved and not entirely sure what to do. She crouches down to the dogs height and hesitates trying to remember what she had been told about dogs, but she couldn’t really remember much, ir she hadn’t really been told much. Uma scrunches her face in thought and reaches her hand out to the barking dog. It raises it’s head to sniff her hand and then starts rubbing against her. “You’re so soft.” Uma says in surprise and starts petting the dog in ernest. Uma gets so caught up in the dog she doesn’t notice a man approaching her until his shadow fell over her, causing her to look up. 

“You must be Uma,” The man starts, making Uma immediately regard him with suspicion, “I’m King Eric. Of Drekkjavegr” The man finishes which makes Uma immediately internally panic before putting on a smile and standing up.

“It’s lovely to meet you, your majesty.”

“It’s lovely to meet you as well. I knew BootStraps would be able to find her person.” King Eric says, picking up the dog. Before Uma could ask what he meant by that, someone else speaks.

“You could’ve also just looked at the picture I sent you, dad,” Vanora says, walking up to the pair, followed by a red-headed woman who Uma could guess was Ariel.

“Where’s the fun in that?” King Eric asks and Ariel comes up to Uma. 

“I’m sorry about him. But it is very nice to meet you, princess Uma.”

“Whoa, whoa, I’m not-”

“On the contrary. Ursula is my aunt. And that makes you a princess. Both in Drekkjavegr and in Atlantica.”

“Uh, that’s nice, but please don’t call me princess. Also, what did you mean by BootStraps finding her person? Also what kind of name is BootStraps?” Uma asks.

“A placeholder name. Eric’s dog, Max, had several puppies a while back. Apparently, Max is magic. And his puppies won’t grow until they have found their person. Who they’ll be able to find no matter what. BootStraps, was the only one of her litter to not attach to one of my daughters. When we heard about you, Eric immediately decided you must be BootStraps’s person.” Ariel explains, sounding fondly exasperated at some points.

“Oh. Do I have to call her BootStraps?”

“No. You can call her whatever you want.” Vanora says.

“Can, Can I hold her?” Uma asks.

“Of course.” King Eric says, handing BootStraps over who yipped happily and licked Uma’s face, causing the girl to smile brightly and giggle a bit.” But, now that pleasantries are out of the way, how about we walk and talk about the kids of the Isle?” King Eric asks. Uma nods in agreement, putting BootStraps on the ground to follow them, and notices Mal grab Harry and Gil and drag them out of the garden. Vanora catches Uma’s eye and explains, 

“They’re heading to the croquet field. King Beast likes to play before lunch.”

“The hell is croquet?” Uma asks and then immediately panics, she had been keeping any swearing in check but talking to Vanora so casually had made her forget.

“It is a ridiculously stupid game.”

“Eric!” Ariel scolds.

“What? You’re hitting a ball through metal gateways, there’s no point to it. Come on, let me show you Uma.” King Eric says, placing a hand on the back of her shoulder and guiding her out of the gardens and into the upper field of the croquet yard, BootStraps following happily. He guides her to the edge by the croquet pit to look down. “See, you hit those balls through those metal gateways. You play on teams of four typically, and if one person hits a ball through a hoop then you move onto the next one, and then you proceed as such until one person has hit a ball through seven hoops. There’s also penalties and things but honestly, it’s just a stupid sport-thing.”

“You shouldn’t say stuff like that. If someone overhears, you might get thrown on a croquet team.” Uma warns.

“Oh, I just might,” Ariel says from behind the pair, causing them to turn around. She was standing with her arms crossed in front of her and an eyebrow raised. “What happened to talking about the Isle kids?”

“I just had to explain how ridiculous croquet is. But you’re right. Uma, please tell us what you can, what you think is relevant and will help us make sure we’re doing everything we can.” King Eric says, walking slowly away from the croquet games.

“Vanora told me that you were planning a boarding school, like Auradon Prep, if you told me a bit more about that, I would be able to be a better help.”

“Of course. We don’t have much planned though. We were planning for about two dozen rooms for the kids. 

“Singles or doubles?”

“A little bit of both. I thought it best that the children decide on whether they share a room or not.”

“If they can choose who too, that’d probably be nice. Don’t expect too much from the kids in the first few days. It’ll take them a while to adjust to a place where they’re completely safe. Speaking of, don’t punish them. If they do something that is considered wrong in your land, stop them and explain that it's bad and why it's bad, If they steal or fight, then it’s just because that’s all they know and that’s how they survived on the Isle. Vanora mentioned that you were considering giving them allowances?”

“Yes. Vanora mentioned that you thought it would be a good idea as they’ve never had anything of their own that wasn’t stolen.”

“Well, I’m sure some of them have had things of their own that weren’t stolen, but yeah, it’d be good for them to be able to buy things to decorate their room. Make it their own. It also would let them get things of their own without resorting to stealing. If possible, complimentary phones would be great. Contact all the time.” Before anyone could respond, a woman’s shrill voice breaks through and cuts any and all conversation short.

“What? You! How are you here? And how have you stayed so young?” Uma heard a woman call, drawing her attention from the royals she was talking to. She heads toward the lower area where the croquet games were going on, but no going down, merely gazing over the edge. She didn’t notice Vanora and her parents following her. BootStraps was growling at her heels.

“Queen Leah, it’s okay. Maleficent is still on the Isle. This is her daughter Mal. Don’t you remember my proclamation to give the new generation a chance?” Ben was explaining, standing in front of Mal, who looked a bit scared. Uma noticed Gil holding Harry back, not noticeably to any of the Auradonians, just preventing him from going and making the situation potentially worse.

“A chance to what, Ben?” Uma’s attention snaps back to Queen Leah, “Destroy us? Come on.” Uma glared, and started walking down the stairs Bootstraps on her heel.”You remember, don’t you? The poison apples. And the spells. Spells. My daughter…” Malice was clear in Queen Leah’s eyes when she continued, “was raised by fairies because of your mother’s curse. So her first words, her first steps, I missed it all! You-”

“That was your own damn fault!” Uma calls, making her way to Mal and Ben, glaring at the Queen.

“Excuse me?”

“ _You_ chose to put Aurora in the care of the fairies. That was _your_ choice. Maleficent’s curse had nothing to do with sending Aurora away.” Uma stops, standing beside Mal, Bootstraps growling at the Queen that was gaining Uma’s ire.

“You think you know her curse better-”

“No, I know I know it better. We learnt all of our parent's curses and tricks at school on the Isle. She cursed your daughter to die by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel when she turned 16. That whole sleep thing was one of the other fairies. The ones you left the care of your daughter to, which, I never understood. Why send her away for her whole life? Maleficent gave you a fucking date on her death. Her 16th birthday. You could’ve raised her in your castle, surrounded by love and care and you could’ve spent 15 years and three hundred and sixty-three days with her, and then locked her in a dungeon or some shit on her sixteenth birthday. You blame our parents for enough. You don’t need to blame them for your bad choices too.” Uma was aware that everyone was staring at her. But she didn’t really care, what she cared about was that she probably just ruined any chance for Isle Kids in King Eric’s kingdom. 

“Uma-” Mal starts, almost silently, but gets cut off by Chad.

“Just go away! No one wants you here!” Chad stands in front of Queen Leah and Audrey, making a physical shield.

“Maybe you should, poking your head in a conversation that has nothing to do with you,” Harry says, standing behind Uma.

“Excuse me?” Chad steps forward, and Ben puts a hand on his chest.

“Don’t do this Chad.”

“What?” Chad scoffs,” They were raised by their parents Ben. You heard the squid, they learnt about their parent’s evil doing in school-”

“And now we’re learning about your parent’s evil-doings.” Uma interrupts.

“Excuse me? Our parents haven’t done anything evil!”

“You confident in that? What about the Isle? Everyone who’s part of the USA, which includes your parents, were compliant with the deaths of, oh, how many kids do you think have died on the Isle? Mal?” Mal shrugs, the girl tried not to think about it, “Harry?”

“Oh, at least a hundred. Probably a thousand. It has been twenty years.”

“Complacent in the deaths of over a hundred kids, Chad. That’s what your parents have done.” 

Chad ignores Uma, turning to Mal, “You stole another girl's boyfriend.”

“Isn’t that girl your girlfriend now?” Harry asks

“Would he have had that chance if Ben didn’t break up with Audrey?” Gil asks, looking at Harry curiously.

“You’re a psychopath,” Chad says to Harry, before turning to Gil. “You’re so stupid I doubt you even know whats going on-”

“He’s smarter than your dumbass. He’s not one D- away from failing out school.” Uma says.

“How do-” Chad stops himself from continuing, “You’re a-” He stops when Uma raises her eyebrows.

“No, go on. Please, share your opinion of me.” Chad flounders once again “What? Sorry, I can’t hear you?” Chad scurries behind Audrey. “That’s what I thought. Let’s go.” Uma says, pulling Mal’s arm and the group heads to the stairs. Uma lets Mal go-between Harry and Gil, falling to the back of the group. She glances up at Vanora and her parents who were looking down at her on the steps.

“See what I meant about a don’t-mess-with-me aura?” Vanora asks quietly, referring to Chad turning tail from confronting her, Uma smiles a bit and holds back a laugh at the ‘hidden’ thumbs up King Eric gave her, before Ariel pushed his hands down, but still gave Uma a wink. 

“I feared something like this would happen.” Uma hears King Beast say, she stops on the stairs, debating going back and defending her friends. Bootstraps went up a couple more steps before turning around and whining curiously at Uma. But she didn’t need to since Ben was intent on doing so himself.

“This isn’t their fault!” Ben cries

“No, it’s yours.” 

Uma shouldn’t have stopped. She’ll probably be removed from Auradon, and Ben might not be able to send her somewhere other than the Isle with the ruckus she’s causing. But like hell is she letting anyone lie to her friend like that. She spins around and rushes down the stairs, Bootstraps right behind her. 

“Bullshit!” Uma calls, walking up to the trio, stopping beside Ben.

“Uma-” Ben is silenced by a hand from Uma.

“This isn’t Ben’s fault. It’s yours.”

“Excuse me-”

“And I mean, all of y’alls, not you singular. You’re all bigoted and prejudiced against us. You don’t want us here. You would rather we be rotting and dying on the Isle.”

“We would never-” Belle tries to interrupt, but Uma cuts her off

“Oh, so all your guards have been lying to you about what goes on on the Isle? They lie about kids starving to death, being worked and beaten to death? Kids getting sick because of the rotten food you send over? Dying because there’s no medicine? Dying from infections because we live on a trash heap? Face it, you never wanted the barrier to open. You wanted it to be shut forever so we can just stay over there, silent as we die by your hands. You don’t give two shits about the innocent children on the Isle, you don’t give a single fuck about the dozens of children I’ve seen die, of the hundreds of child corpses I’ve seen. All because you feel wronged by people you wronged first.”

“You cannot-”

“Or what! You’re going to send me back to the Isle? To fighting for my life every moment of every day? To not sleeping for weeks? Fine! Send me back! I don’t give a fuck. The only thing better about this place? Is that the food isn’t rotten. The company sure as hell ain’t any better. Hell, most of its worse!” Uma was sort of regretting sending Harry and Gil away with Mal, she really shouldn’t be alone right now. BootStraps was growling by her side, but she might actually fight the King if he keeps being a stuck up dick and the puppy can’t really do much to stop her. She’s pretty sure BootStraps would actually help her. When Beast and Belle had nothing to say, Uma continued. “You’re an adult. You’re blaming your son for something he had no control over. He’s sixteen, you’re almost fifty. You’re supposed to guide and help him, instead, you’re being a fucking dick. Captain Hook is a better dad than you. Lady Tremaine is a better parent too!” Uma spins around, grabs Ben’s arm and drags him up the steps and away. She stops when they’re away from the courtyard, letting go of Ben’s arm. Bootstraps right at her heels. 

“Are you okay?”

“I should be asking you that.”

“You just called my dad a dick to his face. I think I’m going to need a bit more time to process that.” Ben says, trying not to laugh. Uma had no reservations and started laughing outright.

“I just called the King of Auradon a dick. To his face. Oh god, I’m so Isle-bound.”

“I won’t let anyone send you back. Also, I’m pretty sure a couple of people wanted to clap.”

“Excuse me?” Uma stopped laughing, trying not to start again, she didn’t know why she wanted to laugh so badly. There was nothing funny about it.

“When we were walking away, I swore I saw King Eric with his hands ready to clap but Ariel stopped him. Also, Genie was 100% laughing, Jordan was trying to keep him quiet.” Both teens started laughing again.

“Why are we laughing?”

“Hysterics? Maybe? Heck, my parents are going to be so pissed.”

“I’m sorry, can you not swear? Is there a law against that or something?”

“No law, only my parent's eternal disappointment.”

“Who cares about their disappointment? They both have sticks shoved so far up their asses it’s a miracle they can even bend their backs.”

“They’re my parents. I care. “

“They’re being shitty parents.”

“Hey-”

“Ben. Your parents shouldn’t be leaving you alone to make decisions that affect the whole Kingdom. You’re sixteen. No offence, but you shouldn’t even be king. Not if they’re never going to help you. You need support, you need people to help you and guide you. Show you how to actually be a King and help your kingdom. Not abandon you to figure it out on your own.”

“I- Uma, they’re still my parents. I can’t, I can’t just-” Ben couldn’t figure out how to say what he was trying to say. 

“I get it,” Uma says softly, “You’re not an Isle kid. You don’t know what abuse is.”

“My parent’s aren’t-”

“Not physically. They put impossible standards on you, abandon you to do it on your own, and when you fail, they don’t help. They won’t help. They scold you and express their disappointment. They’ll only be there when you succeed.”

“Can, can we not talk about this?”

“Sure.”

“Since when do you have a dog?” Ben asks, crouching down and holding his hand out for BootStraps to sniff. 

“Since earlier today. She’s a puppy from King Eric’s dog’s litter. And apparently, I’m her person. She decided, not me.”

“Does she have a name?” Ben asks, petting her.

“BootStraps.”

“BootStraps?”

“It’s a placeholder name. I didn’t pick it. Anyways, we should probably find the others.” Uma says, moving forward, but stops when Ben asks,

“Why did you do that?”

“Do what?” She asks, turning to face him.

“Defend me in front of my parents. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, I did. I blew up at Queen Leah, it wouldn’t have been an issue if I hadn’t.”

“Uma-”

“No. I-I know when I do something wrong, not that I think it was wrong but, I know that I caused issues for you.”

“You didn’t-”

“Don’t lie to me Beastling.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Ben says immediately then immediately looks alarmed, “Uh, not that you’re old like, or that I consider you- uh, I. Sorry captain.”

Uma just looks at Ben, confused, “What are you sorry about? And who told you to call me Captain?”

“I- I don’t know what I was sorry about, well, some girls our age don’t like being called Ma’am. I once called Audrey Ma’am and she just stared at me for a minute before refusing to talk to me for an hour for calling her old. And, I picked it up from Gil and Harry I guess. But, anyways, Uma, I brought you over here, I have to weather any issues that arise.”

“Not alone. You’re… my friend Ben. I’m not going to let you deal with any bullshit alone. Unless it’s paperwork.”

“What? You don’t like paperwork?” Uma shakes her head in the negative, “Why not? It’s so much fun.” Ben deadpans. Uma chuckles and grabs Ben’s arm to pull him so they can get walking to find their other friends.” Seriously. There’s all that reading and signing. You know if you get through a thousand papers a day, you get a stamp of your signature?” Ben continues as they walk.

“Boy how long have you been doing paperwork?”

_-Auradon Prep-_

“Excuse me!” A blonde woman called, running over to Uma and Ben. They had just come out of their little shortcut that had kept them out of view of everyone but their luck ended once they left the trail. Uma didn’t know who the woman was, but there weren’t many options with her being so adept at running in heels.

“Can we help you?” Uma asks when she stops in front of the teens.

“What did you mean Lady Tremaine is a better parent?”

“Uh, she’s- she’s supportive. Her granddaughter, Dizzy, wants to be a designer and a hairstylist. Drizella doesn’t really deal with Dizzy, at all, so Lady Tremaine does. She takes care of Dizzy, makes sure she's fed. Helps her with her crafts and makes sure she has everything she needs for them. The Tremaine's own a hairstyle shop on the Isle and Lady Tremaine lets Dizzy style hair under supervision. Although she does do it without any supervision. But Lady Tremaine doesn’t care. She’s nice and helpful and willing to go the extra mile to help Dizzy.” Uma explains.

“She’s- She’s really like that?”

“Yeah? When Dizzy comes over, you can ask her yourself.” 

“Dizzy will be coming over? Here?”

“Yes, Queen Cinderella. After I’m King, I’ll be bringing over more Isle children.” Ben says and Uma finally realizes who this blonde woman is. Uma keeps her exterior calm while she freaks out inside. Of course, this woman wouldn’t believe that Lady Tremaine could be a good parent.

“Are you sure you want to Ben? After the spectacle that was just made-”

“Hi, spectacle maker right here.” Uma interrupts. She doesn’t care who this woman is, she refuses to be talked about or let Isle Kids be talked about badly. “You’d think that after the abuse you suffered, you’d be happy to bring children out of abusive households on the Isle-”

“Weren’t you just saying that Lady Tremaine was a good parent?”

“Yes. But not all parents on the Isle are good parents. Some parents use their children as free labour, beat them when they sleep because they could be working. Of course, the Isle, in general, is an abusive situation. Everywhere you turn you have to worry about getting jumped, about being killed. Children are suffering every minute on that Isle, and we can do nothing but sit by and wait until Ben is King to truly do anything about it because King Beast would rather us die on the Isle. I wonder if you share the same sentiment?” Uma asks.

“Of course not. I would never wish harm upon children, but, you were raised by your parents.”

“Ugh.” Uma groans, she hates this argument, “Rapunzel was raised by Mother Gothel, is she evil?”

“Well, no.”

“You were raised in a similar situation to many on the Isle, are you evil?”

“Of course not!”

“Then what’s the problem? Either say you’re a hypocrite, or accept and help children in bad situations get into better ones. It’s not hard. Either you’re an asshole for wanting kids to suffer, or you’re part of the solution by helping the kids in any way possible.”

“I would like to help. But Chad has told me some alarming things, that make me think that we would not be safe with villain children in our kingdom. While I would have to talk to my husband before making any definite steps toward helping out the villain kids, there are orphanages set up in many kingdoms that I fund and assist. Perhaps if there are any orphan Villain children, they can stay there?”

“Perhaps. It would depend on other factors.”

“But, a more in-depth conversation can wait until we are in a more official setting. Thank you for offering up your orphanages as a place for Isle Kids to go. We’ll make sure it’s on the list. We can discuss this more later, your majesty.” Ben says, bowing to Cinderella before turning, hooking his arm around Uma’s and heading to the Picnic Area.

“Excuse me? What was that about?” Uma mutters as they walk away. Cinderella was walking back the way she came.

“It would not be a good idea to get into a fight with Cinderella. Especially right after you got into a fight with my dad and Queen Leah. I’ll email Cinderella later about the list. I’m sure most of the USA believes that since I have chosen to let Isle Kids into Auradon, they don’t have a choice and Isle Kids will be put into their schools soon too. I’ll have to send a letter out about an opt-in system for IK housing.”

“Ugh, I hate politics.”

“Will you hate me if I ask you to be my advisor?”

“Excuse me?”

“My advisor. Essentially you’ll be telling me what to do and how what I’m doing is wrong. You already kind of do that.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re already doing that? I trust you Uma. I trust you not to let me forget important things.”

“You sure you want to trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Your funeral,” Uma says with a shrug. 

_-Picnic Area-_

“Hey, you okay?” Uma asks, sliding onto the picnic bench next to Mal. She gives an almost imperceivable shake of her head. Uma opens her mouth to say something else but shuts it when she spots Ben walking over, he was clearly done dealing with his parents. 

“Hey, guys. How is everyone?” He asks, rounding the table, “Yeah? Hey, listen. Forget about it. All right?” Ben says stopping behind Mal and putting his hands on her shoulders, “Let it go. Tomorrow, after the coronation, i promise everything will be okay.” Despite leaning down and whispering it only in Mal’s ear, Uma hears what he says next, “I have to go,” before he continues in his normal cheerful timber, “I’ll see you guys later.”

“I really hope he’s not doing damage control on me calling his dad a dick.”

“You what?” Harry asks.

“He was being a dick, so I called him one.”

“Uma-” Mal starts but is cut off by Audrey.

“How long does she think that’s going to last? Mal is just the bad girl infatuation.” Audrey says, walking by hand in hand with Jane.

“Yeah. I mean, he’s never gonna make a villain, a queen.” Jane taunts, both girls laughing haughtily as they walk away. Mal, looking tired and defeated, flips through her spellbook. 

“I’m quitting cheer.”

“What?” Mal asks, stopping her flipping and looking over at Uma in a daze.

“I’m quitting cheer. Why would I want to be on a squad with a bitch like that?” Uma says at a volume a tad louder than necessary just so Audrey could hear. Mal’s lips tilt up into a smile as she continues to flip a bit before stopping. 

“Beware, forswear, undo Jane’s hair,” Mal says, not putting much effort in incanting but it works regardless. All the Auradonians screech and back away from Jane, glaring over at Mal or laughing at Jane’s hair. Mal stands and turns around. “There’s a lot more where that came from.”

“Excuse me, who do you think you are?” Audrey asks, taking a step toward Mal.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” Mal asks before flipping through the book once more. All the Auradonians scattered.

“Were you really going to do anything to them?” Gil asks, looking up at them.

“The second half of this book is really just stories so no, wasn’t really planning on it. Just, wanted them gone.” Mal says, dropping the book on the table and sitting back down. 

“Oh. Am I stupid?” Gil asks it was clear what Chad had said had gotten to him.

“No, you’re… trusting.” Harry says.

“Trusting?”

“You take things at face value. You trust that people are honest with you and don’t look any further into it. Not unless you need to or something doesn’t make sense to you.” Harry explains.

“Oh. That’s not being stupid?”

“Honestly I’d say that innocence if anything,” Mal says, lazily flipping through her spellbook.

“Innocence?”

“You don’t think anyone would lie to you. You trust people, even those you barely know.” Mal pauses before shrugging and asking. “How do you feel about helping me and Uma steal Fairy Godmother’s wand? We need someone to drive since neither Uma nor I can do so.”

“I can drive. “ Harry offers.

“I can be muscle.” Gil offers.

“Great. You two can steal a limo. There should be a golden button in each one but just make sure there's one in the limo you steal and we’ll be able to get away.” Mal explains, she inhales and continues with a little smile, “I can’t wait to blow this popsicle stand.” She says, standing, “Let’s go.” 

_-Gil & Harry’s Dorm-_

“Do you think Jane hates me?” Gil asks, he was lying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Harry, who had been trying to sleep, groans and turns over to look in Gil’s direction.

“Why would ye ask that?”

“With what she said about Mal. Do you think i’m just a bad boy infatuation?”

“Gil, ye’s the furthest thing from a bad boy from the Isle.” Harry’s accent heavily overlaying his words.

“Should I break up with her? I mean if I’m just an infatuation, then she doesn’t really care so it won’t really matter. Also, we’re stealing the wand and taking over the world tomorrow. “ Gil whips his head to the side to look at Harry, “Should I break up with her because we’re stealing the wand and helping Mal take over the world tomorrow? Being with her while planning to do that seems cruel.”

“Why don’t ye just break up with her now?”

“I can’t!”

“Why not? Ye have a phone, use it.”

“That seems mean. To leave a break up text for her to wake up to.”

“Ye could walk over to her room and do it in person.”

“No I can’t. We’re not allowed in the girls dorm area at this time of night”

“Ohmygod. Why don’t we call the girls?” Harry suggests, too tired to be dealing with this alone. He grabs his Auradon-issued phone and dials Uma.

_-Uma & Mal’s Dorm Room-_

 _” Each town that I plunder, I leave torn asunder, A pirate life is one to Love! And yet my heart’s hardened as hard as a rock - won’t rest ‘til I’ve skinned me a croc! Sing a yo ho! You can beg, plead and whine-”_ The ringtone is stopped by Uma hitting decline on the call.

“Who was that?” Mal asks sleepily.

“Harry. Probably wanting something stupid.” Uma mumbles, trying to go back to sleep. But of course her phone had to go off again. Bootstraps whines in distaste at her sleep being interrupted from the foot of the bed.

 _”Each town that I plunder, I leave torn asu-”_ This time the ringtone is cut off by uma answering with a very annoyed, “What.”

“Gil wants to break up with Jane but doesn’t want to over the phone.” Harry explains, sounding just as tired as Uma feels. 

“What?”

“What is it?” Mal asks, so Uma puts Harry on speaker.

“Repeat, Harry.”

“Dont tell Mal-” The girls hear Gil protest, so they’re also on speaker on the boys end.

Harry explains anyways, he’s too tired and spelled to deal with Auradon drama, “Gil wants to break up with Jane because he thinks it’s a bit cruel to stay with her.”

“That’s not the only reason.” Gil grumbles.

“Oh, and with what she said to the Gecko earlier, he thinks she doesn’t love him.” Harry adds.

“We’re not going to judge you Gil. I’m planning on breaking Ben’s love spell tomorrow.” Mal mumbles sleepily. Uma ignores her.

“So text her and break up.”

“That’s so mean though.” Gil protests.

“So call her.”

“What if she doesn’t answer? I don’t want to leave a break up voicemail!”

“Why are you calling me if you don’t like my suggestions?” Uma asks, raising at eyebrow at the prolonged silence that followed. 

“We can’t go into the girl dorms at this time of night.” Harry says finally.

“Are you fucking me?” Mal groans, grabbing a pillow and slapping it on her face.

“No, I’m fucking Uma.”

“You want us to break up with Jane?” Uma asks tiredly.

“Would you?”

“No!” Mal protests.

“Sure, why not?” Uma says before hanging up.

“Why would you agree?”

“Because they won’t see each other until after the coronation. Jane’s too busy helping out after all. So after our evil deed, he’s supposed to break up? When we’re back on the Isle? Smart thinking o’ wise one.” Uma says, getting up and grabbing an Auradon-provided robe. “Get up, you’re coming.”

“Noooo, you agreed. I didn’t.”

“Mal.”

“But my pillow.”

_“Mal”_

“I’m not leaving my pillow or my blanket.” Mal grumbles with a pout, standing up with her blanket wrapped around her and her pillow clutched tightly in one hand.She reminded Uma of the Evil Queen disguised as an old crone.

“Okay, lets go to Jane’s room.” Uma says, opening their door and motioning for Mal to go out first. “Stay.” Uma orders BootStraps who was looking like she was about to jump off the bed and come with them. Mal heads out the door, sleepy-eyed and clearly grumpy, but stops because she’s not entirely sure where Jane’s room is. “She’s roomies with Audrey, this way.” Uma says motioning to their right and leading the way, shutting the door and letting Mal hobble sleepily behind her.

_-At Jane & Audrey’s dorm-_

Uma knocks on the door, she wasn’t so much tired physically anymore, but emotionally. Mal being a grumpy old fairy isn’t helping. 

“What are you guys..?” Jane asks, opening the door, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

“We need to talk to you about Gil-” Uma starts, wanting to let the girl down easy. 

“He wants to break up.” Mal interrupts, just wanting to get this over with.

That wakes Jane up, “What? But I don’t-”

“Yeah, well. It’s over, tough luck. Text him yourself if you don’t believe us. Can we please go back to bed Uma?” Mal asks, sounding done with the world. Uma opens her mouth to respond when the door in front of them slams and they can hear Jane crying on the other side. Uma snaps her mouth shut and sighs.

“Nice going. Let’s go back to bed.” Uma says, gesturing for Mal to lead the way back to the room. But her hobbling got too slow for Uma so she just passes Mal and heads back to the room on her own. Leaving Mal to hobble sleepily alone in the hallway. 

_-Uma & Mal’s Dorm-_

“Rude.” Is all Mal says when she finally gets back and climbs into bed.

“You were too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it obvious I had issues with the Family Day scenes in Descendants? And, a) Max is immortal and magic because I refuse to deal with pet death on a Disney fanfic, b) Should Uma rename BootStraps?
> 
> Also, like, a big reason Jane and Gil break up is because I needed a reason for Jane to grab the wand still, so, break up right after Mal de-pretties her. Great for her self esteem.
> 
> And, yes, Harry's ringtone on Uma's phone is Captain Hook's song from OUaT. Because I am unoriginal.
> 
> And IK canonically Dr. F is also an awesome parent, but Uma's choice of who to tell Beast are better parents is directly linked to the fact that most of the Heroes presume they are bad with children. Hence, Hook and Lady Tremaine. 
> 
>  
> 
> As always, tell me if you see a mistake, and  
> Comments and Kudos are love, luvs!


	8. Coronation Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coronation is finally here! Whoop!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mal's coronation dress is based off of [ this ](http://picture-cdn.wheretoget.it/j32lya-l-610x610-dress-purple+dress-fancy-posh-prom+dress-prom+dresses-purple.jpg)
> 
> Uma's coronation dress was mainly from my mind but the bottom part of the dress looks something like [ this ](https://image.dhgate.com/0x0/f2/albu/g6/M00/B3/99/rBVaSFp6sKiAJj7iAAFFUqCUOdI056.jpg)

“What’s the box for?” Uma asks, tying up Mal’s dress and making sure she was all good. 

“I’m breaking Ben’s love spell. It, just seems a tad too cruel to leave him spelled when my mom takes over the world. I told you this last night, when Gil called.”

“I don’t remember half of what happened when Gil called. Other than us breaking up with Jane for him. And, do I need to remind you, that your mother will probably not hesitate to hurt your friends if you start hesitating?” Uma asks, rounding Mal to look the girl in the eye.

“No. I’m not hesitating.”Mal defends before changing the subject, You should get ready.”

“I’ll get to it. You’re the one that has to meet Ben in half an hour to prep for the coronation.” Uma says, checking Mal’s make up before putting in earrings. Mal’s hair was already done up in a simple bun with a bedazzled hairband holding it together.

“I know. God, I’m so nervous. I really don’t want my mom to rule Auradon. But there is no other choice. I have to protect my friends. Even if it means hurting Ben.”

“Oh? Is that love I smell?” 

“Hardly. He’s a friend. I feel so bad about pretending to be in love with him.”

“Just tell him it wasn’t working out.”

“I guess.” Both girls look over at the door when a knock sounded, BootStraps starts barking. Uma motioned for Mal to stay put and for BootStraps to hush before she answered the door. 

“Princess Vanora requires Princess Uma in her chambers immediately.”

“ _Princess_ Uma?” Mal asks, stepping toward Uma.

“Did I forget to tell you? It’s some stupid thing with Ariel being my cousin and King Triton being my uncle and the laws of the land and sea and keep getting ready, I’ll deal with Vanora.” Uma says, leaving the room, shutting the door and following the servant that had called her to Vanora’s room.

“What’s up?” Uma asks as she entered. Watching Vanora getting her hair done.

“Do you have a dress?” For the first time, Vanora sounded as prim and proper as one would expect a princess to be.

“Yeah?”

“May I ask from where?”

“Gil.”

“Your friend?”

“Yes.”

“Can you bring it? I’m sorry, but mom and dad want you with us down on the floor at the coronation and they want to make sure we don’t clash. They’ll be by in an hour to take us down to the Cathedral.” Vanora explains.

“I’ll be doing what now?”

“Only if you want to. You can stand with your friends if you want. My parents just want to show that you’re part of the family and nothing will change that.”

“Why do they care so much about me being part of the family?”

“Because they feel guilty. They could’ve stopped Fairy Godmother from resurrecting Ursula and throwing her onto the Isle. They didn’t. And because of that, you suffered.” Vanora explains.

Uma thinks for a moment before deciding.“...I’ll stand with you guys.” It would be easier to help Mal if she was on the floor. “ Let me go get my dress from Gil.” Uma says, leaving the room and heading to the boy's room. 

_-Gil & Harry’s Dorm Room-_

“Is it done?” Uma asks as she barges in. Harry, who was in the middle of getting changed, squawked, but Uma paid him no mind. Focusing solely on Gil, who grabbed a hanger from one of the dressers and handed over the beautiful dress. “Do you mind if I use your bathroom?” Uma asks and when she gets a no from both, dashes into the bathroom and quickly change s into the dress, pulling it on over her head. She turned to look at herself in the full-length mirror that was in every private bathroom at Auradon. The dress was a halter neck, but the halter neck was made of fishnet while the fabric dress had a straight-across neckline. The dress was a mermaid made of metallic teal fabric with little trinkets on the fishnet halter and in the ruffled mermaid skirt on the dress. Uma picks up the skirt so she can walk out of the bathroom without worry of stepping on the skirt. “Thank you, it’s beautiful Gil,” Uma says, pulling the man into a hug.

“I’m glad you like it Uma,” Gil says, returning the hug.

“I love it.” Uma says, pulling back from the hug and looking at the boys, “And you two don’t look half bad yourselves. They were both in black pants with a white ruffle button-up shirt. But Harry had a scarlet sash around his waist and a black suit jacket, while Gil had a honey yellow sash and a sleeveless shirt. “But why is Gil the one sleeveless? I mean both of you love to have your guns out, but why only Gil?” Uma asks and Harry opens his jacket to reveal a dagger stashed in his sash. “They’re going to catch that.”

“No, they won’t. We have a plan.”

“It better not include me. I’m going to be on the floor with King Eric and Queen Ariel. I’ll see you both at the coronation.” Uma says before turning on her heel and leaving.

“Our plan didn’t include Uma, right?”

_-Vanora’s rooms-_

“Do you not have a roommate?” Uma asks as she comes in, no longer holding her dress up. She had stopped by her room to get her shoes and now the dress didn’t touch the floor, she had also put on her accessories. She had also retrieved BootStraps, so the puppy was now following her. Vanora looks up from where she was checking out her own Aegean blue mermaid dress. 

“You look beautiful!” Vanora says, stepping down off of her dias to get closer. “Gil is very talented. Were you planning on doing anything more with your hair?” Vanora asks, Uma had just put her hair up in a bun, without taking out her braids.

“I was hoping to borrow a couple of pins but otherwise, I’m leaving it like this.”

“I have a couple that’ll complete your look.” Vanora says, walking over to her vanity and grabbing a couple of things off and walking back. “Bend down,” Vanora says and puts the pins into Uma’s hair when the other girl does as asked. “Perfect.” Uma stands back up and goes to look in a mirror. She had two little shark pins in her hair.

“Thank you.”

“No problem. You look beautiful.”

“So do you. Lucky we chose the same type of dress I guess.”

Vanora looks down as if just realizing they were both wearing mermaid dresses, giggling as she looked back up at Uma, “Oh, well, ever since this style became popular some years back, it’s become a staple for my mother and all her children to wear them. It is called a mermaid dress.”

“I didn’t know that. Don’t really get dress lessons on the Isle.” Uma says with a shrug.

“But Gil must’ve because this is as gorgeous as anything I’d see in a store.” 

“Gil’s mom taught him to sew. I think he got some books and patterns from Fairy Godmother.”

“Next time there’s a party I must commission him. It’s so gorgeous.”

“It truly is.” Ariel’s voice drifts into the room. The teenagers turn to see her and King Eric standing in the doorway. Ariel was in an ocean blue mermaid dress, while King Eric was in a white formal military jacket with Aegean Blue dress pants and formal boots. 

Uma ducks her head with a little smile before lifting her head high to look the Royal couple in the eyes. “Thank you. You both look wonderful.” 

“We should, it took us an hour to get ready.” King Eric says, walking into the room.

“Well, it was an hour well spent.” Ariel rebuffs, following her husband closely, “I presume Vanora told you of our offer for the coronation?”

“Uh, yes, she did. Thank you for it, I will be accepting.” Uma says,standing up. 

“I’m glad. It’ll be nice to have you standing with us as a family. Even if Vanora’s sisters can’t be with us, I’m glad you will be.”

“Sisters?” Uma asks, turning to Vanora with a raised eyebrow.

“I have four.”

“Damn girl,” Uma says before immediately tensing up and having a moment of panic. Swearing was not easily accepted in Auradon, nor was it commonplace. Although she did swear a lot in front of them on Family Day.

“I’m a sailor, Uma, I doubt anything you say will scandalize me,” Eric says with an easy smile.

Uma raises an eyebrow, “Is that a challenge?”

“Maybe at a later date. Just because Eric won’t be scandalized doesn’t mean everyone else won’t be,” Ariel says, knowing full well that Eric would definitely initiate a scandalization challenge with Uma.

“Yes dear.” Eric says, turning to his wife with love in his eyes.

“Why don’t we head over to the Cathedral? Get ready and everything?” Vanora suggests when her parents start to get all lovey-dovey. 

“Of course,” Ariel says, turning swiftly and leading them away with Eric on her arm. 

“Don’t like parental affection?” Uma asks quietly as the teenagers follow the royal couple, BootStraps on their heels. 

“I just don’t like PDA. It’s ridiculous and stupid.” Vanora says with a shrug.

“Ah. PDA was heavily discouraged on the Isle, it’s so weird to see people so openly displaying their love for one another.” 

“Mmm, well, let’s go sit through hours of drivel.”

“The coronation that long?”

“No. The coronation will probably only be ten minutes at most. The drivel is the speeches that will be given before, and the sermon, and the praying. We’re not really religious but most of Auradon is, so” Vanora shrugs, sounding tired and as if she’d rather not attend at all.

“Damn, sounds so boring.”

“It is super boring.”

“Girls, you’ll survive. “ Eric says, opening a car door for them to go in, “And only talk when there are multiple people already talking.” He advises.

_-Bargain Castle, Isle of the Lost-_

In front of the TV, on a couch, Cruella De Vil, Maleficent and the Evil Queen sat on a couch. Jafar was standing behind them, leaning on the back of the couch. Sitting on the floor in front of the villains, sat their children, who were terrified. Their lives depended on Mal stealing the wand and getting back to the Isle. If she didn’t… well they were constantly reminding Carlos not to think of that. It would do no good worrying and it would give Evie lines on her face. The coronation was starting to play on the TV.

_“At last, here we are, broadcasting live from the coronation where Prince Benjamin will soon be crowned king! I’m Snow White, bringing you up to the second coverage of who’s the fairest of them all._

“ _I’m Snow white._ “ Evil Queen mocks, “Who are you kidding? She’s definitely had work done.”

“Obviously.” Evie agrees. 

_“Oh, Fairy Godmother is looking radiant. But what is happening with Jane’s hair? And there is Fairy Godmother’s wand.”_

“I want that wand!” Maleficent exclaims, lurching forward toward the TV, causing Evie to lean into Carlos to not get hit by the Mistress of All Evil.

“Do you? Hadn’t heard.” Cruella says and Maleficent slowly back up until she’s back on the couch. Evie moves back to sitting up straight, making sure her outfit and hair is perfect and unruffled. 

“ _Oh, and here comes Ben now.”_

_-Royal Carriage, Auradon-_

Mal was fidgeting with the small box in her lap, nervous about this whole thing.

“Don’t be nervous. All you have to do is sit there and look beautiful. No problem there.” Ben says, trying to be reassuring.

“Thank you.” Mal says, breathing deeply, trying to calm down before turning to face Ben, “I have something for you.”

“For me?” Ben asks, a small smile lighting up his face.

“Yeah, it’s just for later, you know, when you need strength,” Mal says, handing over the small box, “Some carbs to keep up your energy,” Mal adds with a small smile as Ben takes the box.

“Always thinking,” Ben says, and Mal turns to face forward again, “But I can’t wait,” Ben adds, taking a bite out of the mini cupcake just as Mal shouts

“No!” Reaching for Ben to stop him but it was too late.

“Mm, mm mmm! This is really good.”

“Uh, do you..” Mal stammers,

“Mal?”

“Do you feel okay?” Mal finally asks.

“You bet.” Ben answers simply, putting the uneaten half of the mini cupcake in the box again.

“Would you say that you’re still in… that,” Mal hesitates, choosing her words carefully, “that you have very strong feelings for me?”

“We should give the anti-love potion a few more minutes to take effect,” Ben advises.

“Yeah, okay,” Mal agrees before what he just said catches up with her, “What? What? You knew?”

Ben was chuckling, “That you spelled me? Yeah, Yeah, I knew.”

“Look-”

“I’m surprised Uma didn’t tell you. You guys seem really close.” Ben cuts Mal off.

“Uma? Uma knew?” Mal asks.

“Yeah, we had a talk after our date, she told me you just had a crush on me, wanted to see how it would work out.”

“Wait, you haven’t been spelled since our date?”

“Yeah, I wanted to test the waters so to say.”

“Test the waters?”

“Well, we didn’t really know each other, so I thought there was no harm in dating and seeing if we’re a good match.” Ben explains, Mal nods along, panicking and slightly lost, “And, Mal, I love you,” Mal closes her eyes and holds back a groan. “But I think we should just be friends.”

Mal’s eyes snap open, “What?”

“I don’t like you romantically. And I’m getting the feeling you don’t either.”

“Uh, no. I thought I did, but I guess I just wasn’t used to someone treating me with such kindness.” Mal explains, only partly lying.

“I’m glad we’re on the same page. Would you like to attend the coronation as my friend, rather than my girlfriend?”

“That was an option?” Mal asks, incredulous. She could’ve avoided this bullshit?

“It is now.”

“Then yes. I will be glad to attend your Kinging as a friend.” Mal says with relief.

_-Bargain Castle, Isle of the Lost-_

Evie gasps when the camera focuses on Mal in a beautiful lilac gown. There was a sweetheart neckline, with a metal dragon cincher around her waist and the grown poofed out from there. Violet beading was dense from the top to the mid-thigh area before it grew sparse. The top of the dress was a lilac lace boat neck with little sleeves, and covering up any cleavage Mal might’ve shown. 

“Well, if it isn’t…” Evil Queen trails off, gaze locked on Mal.

“My daughter. Looking like some kind of-” 

Snow White cuts Maleficent off, the Fairy just dropping her jaw in shock“ _Princess! Now, let’s see who this beauty is wearing.”_ Snow White says, grabbing an envelope from somewhere off-screen, she opens it up and her brow scrunches in confusion. _“Gil. Someone named Gil designed her gown, and a Harry Hook assisted with the beading.”_

“My girl duped a prince! And she is this close to getting that wand!” Maleficent says, getting up, stepping around the children and rushing around the room The camera switches back to see Mal and Ben walking up the steps. “It’s happening, people! It’s happening! I say, gird your loins!” Maleficent stops when she reaches the upper level right behind the couch. “Gird your loins! Villains, our revenge begins today!” Maleficent calls and all the villains start laughing evilly. Their children sitting on the floor hoping everything with go according to plan.

_-Auradon Cathedral-_

After curtsying to Belle, Mal turns to Beast, “About the other day-” Mal starts, but the man cuts her off.

“I told Ben this wasn’t going to be easy,” Beast says, turning his attention to his son. Mal’s brow scrunched in confusion, not understanding how this was connected to what she was going to say.

“You also taught me that a king has to believe in himself. Even when it isn’t easy.” Ben rebuffs.

“I did?”Beast asks, clearly having no memory of doing so, and Mal would be positive Uma probably actually taught Ben that, but Belle slaps Beast’s arm and he recovers, “How very wise of me.”

“I don’t understand how this pertains to what I was going to say?” Mal whispers to Ben.

“What were you going to say, dear?” Belle asks.

“That I was happy you didn’t make your situation worse and piss off Uma more. She has a mean right hook. Probably would’ve dislocated your jaw.” Mal explains, both royals shocked into silence. 

Belle broke it first, turning to Ben. “Well, Ben, we are very proud of you. Keep listening to your heart.” She says, still looking a tad disturbed about what Mal said.

“Thanks, mom.”

“You’re going to make a fine king.” Beast says, clapping Ben on his shoulder before offering his hand to his wife and walking off together. Ben steps closer to Mal.

“I shouldn’t have said that?” Mal asks.

“Probably not, but they need to know that actions have consequences, for them too. Not just villains.” Ben says, soothing Mal’s upset a bit. “Wish me luck,” Ben says with a smile before Mal could respond, someone behind her clears their throat. When she looks back, a man is holding out his hand. She glances to Ben for confirmation that she’s supposed to go with him, and when she gets it, she takes the man hand and lets him guide her into the cathedral through a different door than the one Ben was entering through.

_-Inside the Cathedral-_

“I really regret not switching places with Mal. I could’ve avoided a decade of this drivel.” Uma complains, leaning against Vanora, who was leaning right back against Uma. BootStraps was asleep at their feet.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I completely agree with you.”

“Girls, it has only been an hour and a half.” Ariel admonishes.

“It’s been an eternity.” 

“Word.”

“What’s your favourite story?” Eric asks out of nowhere.

“Mulan,” Vanora answers pretty quickly used to being asked the question. 

Uma takes longer, “Captain Hook.” She answers finally.

“Hey, Mal’s here. Ben’s going to be along any minute.” Vanora says, pointing at the girl standing at the very front of the Cathedral. Beast stood up from his throne as the choir above started singing. Soon enough the doors at the back were being opened and Ben slowly made his way up the aisle.

“Great, we get to wait another eternity for him to reach his parents,” Uma mutters.

“Shut up,” Vanora mutters, trying not to laugh. They curtsy when Ben finally passes them, making his way up to the dias his parents were standing on. He’s making the final stretch to the dias as Fairy Godmother walks up behind the King and Queen’s thrones. She kisses Belle on both cheeks before turning to Beast, curtsying before righting herself and plucking the crown off his head when he bows down. Ben kneels down on the steps as Fairy Godmother walks around the jar holding her wand and puts the crown on top of Ben’s head. A perfect fit, as it should be because they had had his head measured for it the week before.

Uma glances over at Mal, who’s eyes were firmly on Ben and the wand as Beast lifts the jar off of the wand, but she glances over at Uma, fear in her eyes before looking up at the balcony where the boys were standing. Mal turns back to look at the wand as Belle picks it up and offers it to Fairy Godmother, who accepts and walks in front of Ben, stopping before speaking.

“Do you solemnly swear to govern the peoples of Auradon with justice and mercy as long as you shall reign?” Fairy Godmother asks, and Uma shifts, picking up her dress a bit, ready to run out when Mal grabs the wand.

“I do solemnly swear.”

“Then it is my honour and my joy to bless our new king.” Fairy Godmother says, knighting Ben with the wand, holding it up once she’d done, making it easy for someone to grab it out of her hand.

_-Bargain Castle, Isle of the Lost-_

When the barrier breaks and it feels like the whole Isle is shaking, the children make a run for it, jumping out of the window and onto a nearby roof. Jay ends up carrying Evie, not because she can’t run, but because she’s in heels and he doesn’t want to risk her falling. Their disappearance thankfully goes unnoticed by their parents, as they’re more preoccupied with the barrier being broken than their children.

_-Auradon Cathedral-_

“Child! What are you doing?” Fairy Godmother screeches. 

“If you won’t make me beautiful, I’ll do it myself!” Jane exclaims. Uma keeps an eye on Mal, who hadn’t backed up with the rest of the crowd and unlike Uma didn’t have people around her to squish her back. Sparks were flying wildly off the wand and Uma was pretty surprised nothing had happened to anyone yet. Jane says the magic words, but she can’t control the wand. Beast yells for everyone to take cover, as though they hadn’t already been trying to do so. When Mal lurches forward, grabbing the wand from Jane, Uma can distantly hear Belle telling her to be careful but she doesn’t pay it any mind. Just squeezing out from the crowd to stand beside Mal. BootStraps right beside her. When she looks up at the balcony, the boys are already running for the stairs.

Jane runs for cover, hiding behind Lonnie once she sees who took the wand from her.

“Mal, give me the wand,” Ben says, standing between her and his father.

“Stand back,” Mal says, thrusting the wand forward but not letting it do anything.

“It’s okay.” Ben tries, trying to calm her down.

“Ben, I said stand back!” Mal shouts, her magic permeating the air but ultimately doing nothing. Everyone flinches regardless. Save for Audrey who comes forward to speak.

“I told you so!”

 

“Oh shut up princess. No one cares.” Uma says, not notices the tiny light that whipped into her necklace from Audrey’s throat. No one noticing that the princess couldn’t say a single thing. Chalking it up to fear when they all flee backwards when Mal turns the wand to them.

“Uma, do you want to do this?” Ariel asks, coming forward, followed closely by Eric and Vanora.

“Please don’t make this mistake!” Vanora pleads, “You’re better than this.”

“Mal too, you’re far better than this, you’re gooder than this.” Belle pleads.

“Oh, would you all shut up!” Uma calls as suddenly a bunch of bright lights from all over the cathedral whip into her necklace. Only five people were spared.

“Did you just steal everyone’s voices?” Mal asks, looking to Uma incredulously.

“Not intentionally!” Uma defends, looking around as everyone realizes they can’t speak.

“Are we going to go, girls?” Harry asks when he and Gil finally jog up behind the pair.

“Do you really want to do this?” Ben asks.

“You didn’t take _his_ voice?” Mal asks and Uma just shrugs in response.

“Mal,” Ben calls, drawing her attention back to him.

“We have no choice! Ben, our parents-”

“Your mom.” Uma corrects.

“Your parents made their choices! Now you make yours.” Ben declares.

“It’s not that simple!” Mal shouts. Uma looks back at her boys, mouthing ‘go. Isle. Jay.’ Harry seems to of gotten her intended message because he grabs Gil’s arm and hauls him back down the aisle and out the doors. “Where are they going?” Mal hisses.

“To get the car,” Uma explains, lying by omission. They were getting the car, they were also driving off to rescue Mal’s friends in said car.

“Why not?” Ben asks, ignoring the other conversation taking place between the two girls.

“Because, because my friends,” Mal gets choked up a bit before continuing, “They’re on the Isle, and I know my mom won’t hesitate to hurt them if I don’t bring her the wand,” Mal explains, tears in her eyes.

“We-we can send guards to get them. Please Mal, I know you’re better than this!”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m better than this! This is what I have to be! I don’t have a choice! I’ve never had a choice in who I am.”

“You have a choice now!”

“No, I don’t!” Mal yells back before calling “Uma!” desperately hoping she’d get what Mal wants her to do without her having to explain.

“Time for you to quiet down Benny boo,” Uma says, her hand over her necklace, pushing energy into it as a bright light leaves Ben’s throat and goes into the necklace.

“Thank you. Let’s go. Hopefully, the boys are ready.” Mal says, turning to go just as a loud thunder crack, causing her to turn to see green smoke entering the cathedral through a broken window.

“Is that-” Uma stops herself before finishing the thought, knowing there was only one person it could be. Uma grabs onto one of Mal’s arms and the girl returns the grip, holding Uma’s arm tightly as Maleficent appears in front of them. 

“I’m back!” Maleficent calls to Fairy Godmother before turning around to face Mal and Uma.”Hi girls.” She greets before demanding, “Wand me.”

“Promise me my friends are safe first,” Mal demands, holding onto the wand.

“Of course they’re safe.”

“Swear to me on your scepter, that they’re safe and no harm will come to them. Then you get the wand.”

“Oh for evilness's sake, why are-” Maleficent gets cut off by someone’s phone going off.

_” Each town that I plunder, I leave torn asunder, A pirate life is one to Love! And yet my heart’s hardened as hard as a rock - won’t rest ‘til I’ve skinned me a croc! Sing a yo ho! You can beg, plead and whine but yo ho you are wasting-”_ Uma scrambles to answer the phone, giving Maleficent an apologetic smile as she answers.

“What?” She hisses.

“ _Right so. We’re supposed to rescue Mal’s friends from the Isle right?_ ” Gil asks, using Harry’s phone since the pirate was driving.

“Yes.” 

“ _Just checking_ ” Gil says before hanging up the phone.

“Sorry. Boys.” Uma says, putting her phone back in its pocket.

“Right.” Maleficent drawls, “Now, Wand me.” Behind the evil fairy Ben, his parents and Fairy Godmother were making a big fuss of not doing so.

“Uma?”

“I told the boys to go for a drive. We won’t be interrupted.” Uma says, hoping Mal got her message. 

“Wand me!” Maleficent demands. Mal hesitates before faking a throw at her mother before actually throwing it at Fairy Godmother at the same time Uma returned the woman’s voice.

“Bibbidi-bobbidi-” Fairy Godmother starts her magic words but Maleficent finishes them

“Boo!” with that one word and a thrust of her staff, Maleficent freezes the entire cathedral. Save for Mal and Uma. “Psych,” Maleficent says before going around the royal family and Fairy Godmother.

“I’m sorry,” Mal whispers to Uma.

“It’s fine. We’ll weather this together.” Uma says, gripping Mal’s hand tightly. Mal squeezes Uma’s hand in return.

“Where to start, where to start.” Maleficent was muttering, she was coming down the steps, wand in one hand, sceptre in the other.

“Maybe freeing all the kids on the Isle from your monstrous grasp?” Uma suggests.

“Why is she back talking?” Maleficent asks Mal, ignoring Uma’s existence.

“She’s my friend mom.”

“Friends are weakness. You shouldn’t have any friends! Only minions.” Maleficent orders.

“Friends are not weakness mother! I-I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Uma and Gil and Harry.”

“They’re your minions sweetheart. You spelled them.” Maleficent says, as though it was obvious.

“I have not been-” Mal cuts Uma off.

“Ben is my friend. Evie is my friend. Jay is my friend. Carlos is my friend. Uma is my friend. Harry is my friend. Gil is my friend. I love them, mother!” Mal protests.

“Love?! There is no room for love in your life, young lady!” Maleficent shouts.

Mal’s face scrunchies up in anger as she incants, “And now I command, wand to my hand!” And after a bit of struggle, the wand shot from Maleficent’s hand to hers. “It worked!” Mal says, sighing with relief.

“I hardly believe so! Why can’t you be more like me? Isn’t that what you want?”

“No, mom! You don’t know what I want! I’m not you.” Mal says, so close to tears.

“Well, of course. I’ve had years and years and years and years of practice being evil. You’ll get there.” Maleficent says, trying to be encouraging.

“I don’t want to get there. And I wish you never got there yourself. I wish you had love in your life. From friends, from family, from anyone.”

“Shut up! Give me the wand back!” Maleficent roars.

“No!”

“What’s in it for us?” Uma asks, butting in. No intention of helping Maleficent, but curious none the less. 

Maleficent pauses before asking, “Excuse me?” 

“What’s in it for us if we give you the wand?” Uma asks again.

Maleficent hesitates once more, “You’ll get to rule whatever kingdom you want?”

“That’s all?”

“‘That’s all?’” Maleficent mocks, “What? Are you spoiled?” 

“I mean, giving you the wand, that seems like it would be pretty important to your whole take over the world thing. The reward should be just as great, no?” 

There’s a pregnant pause before Maleficent answers “No.”

“Fine.” Uma says with a shrug. “No wand for you then. Good must really be stronger than Evil.” Uma says, looking at her nails, not giving Maleficent even a glance.

“Excuse me?!”

“What are you doing?” Mal hisses.

“What I need to.” Uma hisses back. “I mean, not only did Good defeat you last time, but they also revived your dead ass. Some Mistress of All Evil. Couldn’t even survive your own curse.”

“Watch what you say, girl! I have a right mind to turn you into a toad!” Maleficent threatens.

“Do you need your voice to do that?” Uma asks, touching her necklace and putting power into it, soon enough Maleficent’s voice escapes her throat and floats into the necklace. “Ah, beautiful silence at last.”

“You just stole my mom's voice,” Mal says, shocked.

“Yeah, I did. She was getting annoying.” Uma says.

“You just stole my mom's voice ” Mal repeats.

“Did I break your tiny brain?”

“Hey!” Mal says, whipping her head around to look at Uma when she registered the insult. 

“Oh good, you’re not broken.”

“Shut up!” Mal hisses, before looking over to her mother and adding, “Look!” Gesturing to her mother who was pacing in a circle very angry, green smoke enveloping her and transforming her.

“Oh, shit.” Uma says, grabbing Mal’s arm and yanking the girl back as Maleficent becomes a giant ass dragon. Mal was still staring at her mom in shock as she stumbles backwards due to Uma pulling her. 

_“Winds of the Caspian Sea, Do as I command thee, ground this dragon!_ “ Uma incants when Maleficent takes to the sky. Powerful winds blow through the cathedral, throwing Maleficent up into the ceiling before letting her drop to the ground.

“Holy Shit,” Mal says, breathless and amazed. Then when her mom starts to get up, she repeats, “Holy shit,” in a more panicked tone.

“You have the wand, use it!” Uma hisses. Mal took a moment to breathe deeply before staring down her mother who had gotten closer to them.

“Get behind me.” Mal orders, “This is between you and me mother!” Mal shouts after Uma had gotten behind her. _“The strength of Evil is good as none when stands before two hearts as one.”_ Uma puts her hands on Mal’s shoulders, giving Mal her power and support in defeating her mother, _” The strength of Evil is good as none when stands before two hearts as one. The strength of Evil is good as none when stands before two hearts as one.”_ a moment after Mal finishes incanting, Maleficent shrinks.

“What just-” Mal starts before picking up her dress and bolting to the front, followed by Uma. 

“Did we-” Uma starts but Fairy Godmother cuts her off.

“No, no. Maleficent shrunk to the size of love in her heart. That’s why it’s so itty-bitty.”

“I believe this belongs to you,” Mal says, handing over the wand.

“And I believe you’ve all earned an ‘A’ in Goodness class. Would you mind returning everyone’s voices?” Fairy Godmother asks and Uma nods, pushing her magic into her necklace and releasing all the voices. Then Fairy Godmother says her magic words and everyone unfreezes. Ben rushes forward roaring.

“Ben!” Mal says, catching him before he can step on her mom, “We got this all wrapped up here.” 

“Oh, okay. Wait, you choose good?”

“Yes, Ben, I choose good.

“Also, just an FYI, the boys will be back sometime soon with Mal’s friends,” Uma says, leaning into the pair's conversation.

“Uma!” Ariel calls rushing over and enveloping the girl in a hug, followed by Vanora and Eric, BootStraps rubbing against her leg.

“You don’t even know why I went bad.” Uma groans from the center of the group hug.

“I don’t care. I saw Maleficent and I’m just happy you're okay.” Ariel says.

“We met the other day,”

“Uma, I fell in love with a man I didn’t even speak to. You’re family.”

“Why did you go evil?” Vanora asks.

“Mal’s a friend and her friends were in danger if we didn’t.”

“Oh, makes sense.”

“I take it you’re okay Uma?” Ben asks, standing a foot away from the family group hug.

“It’s actually getting a bit hard to breathe,” Uma complains and instantly they all released her and stepped back. “Thanks,” Uma says and takes a step toward Ben.

“How are you?”

“Alright. Tired, but alright.”

“I’m glad. I’m going to go talk to Fairy Godmother about Mal’s friends.” Ben says pointing to the woman before turning and heading over to her. Uma pulls out her phone and texts Harry that everything was wrapped up and all good. 

_“Each town that I plunder, I leave torn asunder, A pirate life is one to Love!”_ Uma answers Harry’s call tiredly, “Yes?” 

“Hey, we need to talk when we get back. Something, bad, happened.” Harry says, sounding exhausted and mildly pissed.

“Did one of Mal’s-”

“No. They’re fine. Sleeping in the backseat. Didn’t really need us at all, got away all on their own.”

“Okay, so why do you sound so serious?”

“I- It’s complicated. Can you get Beastie on the phone?” Harry asks.

“Sure.” Uma says, confused, but walks over to Ben who was talking to his parents, “Harry wants to talk to you.” Uma says, handing over the phone. Ben’s brow scrunches in confusion but takes the phone and puts it up to his ear.

“Harry?” Ben asks, and Uma walks away, heading to Audrey while Ben talks to her boyfriend. 

“Hey,” Uma says when she approaches Audrey and her family, “I’m sorry for stealing your voice earlier. Didn’t mean to do it, but still, I’m sorry.” Uma apologizes

“It’s fine. You did it to everyone.” Audrey says, being politically polite.

“Can we talk privately?” Uma asks, eyeing Audrey’s family.

Audrey regarded her with suspicion but walked away from her family with Uma a short distance so they were semi-alone. “What?”

“I’m also sorry for calling you a bitch and not warning you Ben was going to sing a song about Mal. And, don’t do that, where you accept because its the right thing to do. I hurt you.”

Audrey hesitates before speaking, “You’re right. You did. And I’m mad. I’m beyond angry. You helped destroy my entire life and-” Audrey stops herself when Ben and Fairy Godmother approach the pair.

“What do you two want?” Uma asks, raising an eyebrow at the pair.

“Please stay still for a moment, Ben would like me to satisfy his curiosity.” Fairy Godmother says before waving her wand and saying, “Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.” Outwardly nothing happened, inwardly, however, Mal’s friendship spell disappeared. 

“Oh, that little bitch,” Uma says when her mind and emotions were finally her own again.

“Now, that’s not a nice thing to say,” Fairy Godmother reprimands.

“Nice? I’m not being nice. That lizard _spelled_ me to be her friend and had me help her do her mom’s evil scheme! Why the fuck should I be nice to that bitch?”

Fairy Godmother seemed rightly scandalized, but Ben pats her shoulder and speaks before she can, “I’ll handle this. Thank you.” Ben says with a smile and Fairy Godmother heads off back to Beast and Belle. “Your phone. Harry told me, Mal had spelled you and that Fairy Godmother would know how to remove it.” Ben says, handing the device back over to Uma.

“Thanks,” Uma says, putting the phone away.

“You were spelled?” Audrey asks, raising an eyebrow.

“It doesn’t matter. I still said things I regret, and I owe you an apology.” Uma says before turning to Ben, “As does our little beast.” Uma says, hoping he’d get the message. It was clear he did when he flinched and realization donned in his eyes.

“Oh my god. Audrey. I’m so sorry. I didn’t-I wasn’t. I got distracted, and I’m so sorry for what I did to you at the game, Mal had me under a love spell but still, you deserve an apology. I’m truly sorry for all the hurt I caused you.” Ben says.

“Thank you. It’s alright, Ben. Now go away, I want to talk to Uma.” Audrey says, shooing the King away.

“I should give him a treat.”

“Yeah, you seem to have trained him well.”

“Shut up. Look, I know, I hurt you badly, multiple times, but, honestly? I want us to be friends. Despite my spelled state, you were amazingly sweet and kind, even when I didn’t deserve it, and I want to return the favour. You were a friend, you even tried to convince me that Harry was right about Mal spelling me, I didn’t listen. I understand if you don’t want to have anything to do with me, but I figured I’d just put it out there.” Uma says and was completely blindsided when Audrey hugs her.

“Thank you.” Audrey whispers.

“What are you thanking me for?” Uma whispers back, slowly hugging the princess back.

“Few people care about how I really feel. They just want me to be happy and kind all the time.”

“Mmm, well you deserve an award for not punching Mal like I’m planning on doing in a few seconds.”

“Oh, I wanted to. She curtsied to me and I have to pretend everything is just fine now.” Audrey says, pulling back from the hug. “I don’t know about being friends, just yet. I need some time. But, I want to in the future. Maybe next semester.” Audrey says and Uma nods,

“That’s fair.”

“Yeah, why now?” 

“Why now what?” Uma asks, very confused.

“Why are you apologizing to me now? I mean, you started apologizing even before you got de-spelled.”

“Oh, well, we were going to help Maleficent take over the world. What’s the point in me being kind and apologizing to you if you’re just going to think it was all fake when the truth came out?”

“I suppose that makes sense. I definitely would’ve been more, i don’t know what I would’ve been, if we were still friends when this went down. I think I would’ve been hurt, to know you lied to me. Thought you used me.”

“Yeah, I’m really sorry. Kinda glad we weren’t friends when this went down. That would’ve taken so much explaining.”

“Hey, it’s still taking a lot of explaining, don’t think you get off that easily.”

“More explaining and comforting. Less telling you you have a right to be pissed at Mal.”

“That’s fair.” Audrey says, looking around the cathedral until her eyes fall on Jane, who was talking to Mal. “Now what evil-thoughts is that bitch putting into Jane’s head?” Audrey says, venom clear in her voice.

“Well, considering Fairy Godmother is right there, probably not many evil-thoughts. Although, now I wish I hadn’t sent the boys away, Gil and Jane really need to talk.”

“Yeah, where are Gil and Harry?”

“I sent them to the Isle to retrieve Mal’s friends. They were the main reason she was doing this, so I figured if they were safe we could fight against her mother.”

“Why didn’t you just get them earlier?”

“Because I was dealing with my own life and didn’t think. I don’t know. Besides, I had my hands full reminding Mal that she had friends on the Isle still, she kept wanting to not do this but, like 99% of me being her friend, was reminding her that her real friends lives were in danger.”

“So if you two weren’t ‘friends’...” Audrey trails off, waiting for Uma to finish.

“This, probably wouldn’t have happened, and three innocent children of the Isle would probably be dead.”

“Well, no one died here, so, better option I suppose.” Audrey admits with a shrug, then looks over at Jane and finds her alone, “Should we go talk to her? I need to apologize for how I handled her and Gil’s break up.”

“Yeah, and I need to apologize for perpetuating Gil’s break up. And I can guarantee you, Mal said nothing of an apology when she spoke to Jane for ripping her heart out.”

“Obviously. She didn’t apologize to me for publically humiliating me and stealing my boyfriend. And she hasn’t apologized to you for spelling you.”

“Yeah, and I doubt she ever will. Ugh, I let her call me Shrimpy. I am so killing her later.” Uma grumbles but starts walking over to Jane, Audrey following by her side.

“What’s so bad about ‘Shrimpy’?”

“It’s a nickname she used to bully me on the Isle because when we were six, she poured a bucket of rotten shrimp in my hair and it didn’t come out until I got here. She convinced everyone to call me shrimpy, and it was such a hit to my rep, that my mom wouldn’t even let me in her shop and I’ve told this before.”

“Yeah, the story was starting to get familiar.” Audrey says before the pair come upon Jane.

“Hi, Jane.” Uma says, gaining the girls attention.

“Oh, hi, Uma, Audrey. What’s up?”

“I need to apologize to you, for helping Gil break up with you and not being more clear on why, you were breaking up.”

“Wasn’t it because I wasn’t cute anymore?”

“No!” Uma nearly shouts, “He broke up because, a) this entire thing was going down and he thought it would be mean to still be dating you while helping the villains take over the world, and b) because of what you and Audrey said at the Picnic area on Family day. He worried that he was just a bad boy infatuation and that you didn’t love him. This is all so new to us, but he didn’t want to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t love him. He knew that much.” Uma explains.

“What? No! I-I do, love him. I didn’t-” Jane stops unable to say any more.

“I didn’t realize what we were saying would affect the rest of you so much, we were just thinking of hurting Mal.” Audrey explains.

“Yeah, not much point in taunting her with Ben not loving her, she never loved him to begin with.”

“Excuse me? She stole my boyfriend and she didn’t even love him?”

“Yup. She doesn’t even like boys that way.” Uma says, before turning her attention back to Jane, “Gil is currently out with Harry, rescuing the Gecko’s friends, but when he comes back, I think you two need to talk. Clear things up.” Uma advises.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Jane says before hugging Uma tightly, “Thank you.” Uma awkwardly hugs the fairy back before the hug was broken.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?” Fairy Godmother cut in. Panic was clear on Jane’s face before she turned to face her mother. Audrey just pulled Uma away from the pair.

“What-”

“Family stuff, don’t get involved. Bad things happen.” Audrey explains, not even letting Uma get her question out.

“You’re still annoyed with Family Day aren’t you?”

“Actually, _I_ am just worried you’re going to insult some other King.”

“Act like a dick, get called a dick.”

“Well, that’s a lovely motto.” A voice cuts in, which both girls recognize and panic was clear on their faces before they turned to Cinderella, composing their faces into polite smiles.

“Queen Cinerella, it’s a pleasure to see you again.” Uma greets.

“Yes, it is my fault for not announcing myself, you are children, you will speak crudely.”

“Yup. So, what’s up?” Uma asks, earning an elbow to the gut from Audrey, “Your majesty?” Uma adds.

“Uh, I was speaking with King Benjamin earlier, and he told me to ask you. So, Princess Uma, may we set up a meeting so I may learn more about the children of the Isle and make sure appropriate arrangements are made?”

“Yes!” Uma answers, almost too soon, “Of course. I-I would be happy to meet. Uh, when?”

“Perhaps in a couple of days? I will email King Benjamin the potential dates and times and you can decide which one works for you best.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“No, I should be thanking you. If you hadn’t spoken so frankly on family day, I wouldn’t be able to help so many children who are growing up like I have. My childhood was, excuse my language, hell. And I can’t bare the thought, of hundreds of children going through what I did, or worse. So, thank you, Princess Uma, for opening my eyes.”

“Uh, your welcome?” Uma says, out of her element.

“She means, she graciously accepts your thanks and your help, however you give it. She will get back to you as soon as possible, and in the future, will be getting her own email for people to contact her through, rather than everyone going through King Benjamin.” Audrey explains with a gentle smile and Cinderella leaves.

“Thank you.” Uma says once the Queen is gone.

“We need to get you some princess lessons. And etiquette lessons. And political- you know what? Why don’t I decide your schedule for the next semester? That might be easier. I’ll see you in a couple of days, we’ll need to get you a new wadrobe and so much more if you’re going to be convincing kingdoms that Isle Kids deserve a chance. See you later!” Audrey says, kissing both of Uma’s cheeks before going back to her family.

“What just happened?” Uma asks no on in particular. 

“Audrey just offered to help you in your quest to bring over all the Isle children.” Vanora explains, coming up to Uma.

“That was so sweet.” King Eric says from behind Uma, causing the girl to jump. “Also, this event is done.” He adds with thumbs up.

“You seem more excited about that than anything else.” Ariel says.

“I have to agree with dad, mom. This being over means we can go get food and ice cream. Want to come, Uma?” Vanora asks, and Uma nods in agreement.

“Why not?”

_-Beast Castle-_

Uma and Harry go off on their own, sitting down on the grass and watching the celebration. Not really wanting to participate in all the song and dance. Gil and Jane were though, the pair had talked shortly after Harry and Gil got back and had made up. Dating once more.

“How do you feel about Ben?” Uma asks, leaning against Harry’s chest, sitting between his legs.

“He’s a good friend.”

“Harry.”

“Ask what you want to ask love.”

“I did. You’re being a dense moron.”

“Uma.”

“You know my feelings toward Ben. Knew them before I did.”

“I just knew the signs Captain. After all, I watched you fall in love with me, did I not?”

“Right, well, how do you feel?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t spent much time with the beastling, but, he seems like he would be interested.”

“Harry, that’s not what I’m asking. I don’t care what Ben feels. What do you feel?”

“...I want him. He’s cute, silly and adorable. And he seems to appreciate you almost as much as I do.”

“So, you want to talk to him?”

“Maybe after the party.”

“After we kill Mal.”

“Mmm, can’t believe she spelled us.”

“I can. I’ve already talked to Fairy Godmother and Vanora. I’m moving out of that dorm with Mal. Evie’s moving in.”

“Hmm, the little blueberry. I can’t believe that I saved their lives.”

“I don’t think you did that.”

“It was a near thing. I lost my dagger. I’ve never seen any of them look so scared. They deserve a second chance, but part of me wishes I left them on the Isle as a punishment to Mal.”

“Not everything has to be about that Gecko. Fairy Godmother already has a year-long detention planned out. Including a class on ‘Why Spelling People is Bad’. Mal is going to suffer, and it’ll be because of good.”

“Sure that’s enough Captain?” Harry murmurs before casting his attention to the approaching King.

“Hey, why are you two all the way out here? The party’s over there.” Ben says, gesturing to the very bright party.

“Didn’t really want to party with the cabbage head.”

“I’m going to presume Harry means Mal, and agree with him. Sorry Ben, but partying with the girl who had me spelled this past week to be her friend after she put me through hell, is more punishment than celebration.” Uma explains with a tired shrug.

“That’s… fair. I guess, not everyone can be friends.”

“Maybe in a few years.” 

“Or a decade.” Harry grumbles, before perking up, “Want to sit with us Beastling?”

“Oh, uh, I wouldn’t want to intrude-”

“Wouldn’t offer if we thought ye’d be intruding.” Uma spreads her legs and pats the ground beneath. Ben opened his mouth to say something but shut it when Uma raised an eyebrow and just sat down between Uma’s legs, back against her chest. Uma wraps her arms around the king. 

“Good boy,” Uma says, leaning back against Harry who grunted with the added weight of Ben.

“Are you okay Harry?” 

“Totally,” Harry whispers before falling back onto the ground, taking Ben and Uma with him, but they all just start laughing. “What are all those lights?” Harry asks, gesturing to the sky.

“You mean the Stars?” Ben asks

“Stars? My dad used to sail the sea using those and a sextant.” Harry murmurs.

“Most sailors used those, a long time ago.”

“Ye calling my pa old?” 

“He’s over three hundred years old Harry.” Uma butts in.

“He is?” Ben asks this was new information to him.

“Yup. He ran goods for Pan for three hundred years before life got complicated” Harry explains.

“Don't people see shapes in stars?” Uma asks, changing the subject.

“You mean constellations? Yeah. There are actually a few out now.” Ben says before he starts pointing out the constellations that the trio could see. Hours pass of them gazing at constellations, Harry calling them stupid and coming up with his own, and just general chatting. 

When the party starts to die down, Ben says, “We should probably head in.” Before standing up and offering his hand to Uma, who accepts and pulls herself up using it. Harry gets up while Uma’s getting up and the trio head to the dorms.

“Thanks, beastling, had a wonderful time,” Harry says, kissing Ben’s hand, before heading down the hallway filled with the boy's dorms. 

“Flirt. But he’s right, it was a wonderful time. And thank you for talking to Fairy Godmother about Mal. See you later Benny-boo.” Uma says, copying what Harry did to Ben’s other hand and heading down the hallways filled with the girl's dorms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, i know we all wanted Mal to get sacked, but, I couldn't fit it in. I tried.
> 
> And that's technically the end! I still have an epilogue I'm going to post tomorrow, but. Still. Holy shiznits.
> 
> As always, tell me if you see a mistake, and  
> comments and kudos are love, luvs.


	9. Epilouge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens later?

Uma was sleeping in Vanora’s room. She had moved out of her and Mal’s room after Ben’s coronation and Evie moved into the room. While Vanora didn’t have a second bed in her room, she did have a very comfortable window seat that Uma was content to sleep on until Fairy Godmother found her a room or put a bed in Vanora’s. Although she was pretty sure she’d be sleeping on Vanora’s window seat until the next semester. It was fine, Uma had slept on worse.

Evie, Jay and Carlos were all settling in well. They were happy to be free of their parents and finally getting positive attention. Ben had sent out the survey on who in Auradon would be happy to take in Isle children, and he had also sent out the survey to the Isle for the kids to pick where they want to go. Ben had also officially explained that he would only be able to bring over four Isle Kids to Auradon Prep due to his council. Which then earned his council some backlash and some position changes.

All in all, it had been an interesting week. Mal had been serving detention for spelling Uma, Harry and Gil, but she had managed to convince Fairy Godmother, that she had only spelled them because she felt so alone and wanted friends who’d understand her. Mal had probably bullshitted some other stuff, but all Uma heard was that Fairy Godmother had ended her detention sentence, much to Uma’s annoyance. Of course, when Uma brought up her ire, she was just told that it wasn’t kind to hold grudges. Vanora had yanked her out of the room before Uma could explode with how everyone else holds fucking grudges.

Uma still sent a very proper and passive-aggressive letter to Fairy Godmother later detailing that exact topic. Including how she herself holds grudges.

Her meeting with Cinderella had gone well, there were now specialized home for Isle Children in her kingdom, places where they would feel most at home and be able to heal. Audrey had texted her an email address to use for all the royals, stating that she had already sent it to all of the Royals in Auradon and Ben was giving it out to those outside of Auradon as a means to contact her directly. She had also given Uma her new schedule, which detailed so many diplomat lessons Uma’s sure her head is going to explode with all she’ll have to do. But, she happy. She’s going to be able to help so many more kids if she knows how to properly deal with Auradonian royal situations.

“You sure you’re okay with the window seat? I’m sure Jordan wouldn’t mind lending you her bed outside her lamp.” Vanora suggests for what felt like the ninetieth time that week. Uma knew she was just concerned, but it still bugged the ever-living daylights out her that Vanora didn’t trust her to tell her if she didn’t like the window seat.

“I-” Uma’s rebuff was cut off by knocking at the door, and Ove, formerly BootStraps, barking at the door like mad. Uma groans and opens the door, to reveal Audrey with a suitcase. “Hi?” Uma asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m going on a spa-cation,” Audrey says, as though explaining something. Uma looks to Vanora who shrugs before turning her attention back to Audrey.

“Okay? Why are you telling me?” Audrey sighs and pushes her way into the room, eyeing Uma’s suitcase, which the girl had been living out of the past few days.

“Oh, good, you don’t need much time to pack.”

“Excuse me?”

“I need to relax after everything that happened. You do too. So, you’re coming with me.” Audrey explains.

“Excuse me?” Uma asks again, not entirely sure she understands.

“I already cleared it with Fairy Godmother, you're fine. Now, pack up. We have a car to catch.”

“I didn’t agree.”

“So you don’t want to sleep in a real bed? Away from Mal and her magic? Away from all this drama? You don’t want to be pampered like the princess you are?” Audrey asks and Uma’s brow scrunches in confusion when Vanora, behind Audrey, starts miming for her to agree. She stops when Audrey spins around but starts again when Audrey’s attention returns to Uma.

Uma throws her arms up, “Why the hell not?” And heads over to pack up her suitcase and then following Audrey out, Ove at their heels.

_-Later-_

Vanora looked up from her reading when someone knocked on her door. She got up and answered, raising an eyebrow at the blue haired girl on the other side. “Can I help you?” 

“Is Uma here? I was looking around the room and I found this box under the bed. Mal said it wasn’t hers, so I thought it might be Uma’s.” Evie explains, holding out a small box.

“Uma left a few hours ago with Audrey. They’re going on a spa-cation away from Mal and her magic.” Vanora explains, taking the box.

“Oh, well, make sure she gets it when she gets back.” Evie says with a small smile before turning and leaving. Vanor shuts the door and looks at the box curiously as she walks back to her bed. She drops the box onto her bed and texts Uma. 

_Hey, Evie dropped off a box that she found under your former bed. Yours?_

Vanora sends the text and puts her phone down, going back to reading on her bed. It was an hour before Uma responded.

_My moms technically. Forget she even gave it to me. U can open it if u want._

Vanora considers Uma text for a moment before she drops her phone onto her bed and picks up the box, spending a good minute on figuring out how to open lock before succeeding and opening the box. Inside there was a book and a fish skeleton. Vanora pulls out the book flipping through it and finding it blank. She picks up the fish skeleton and finds it far more durable than fish bones normally would be. Vanora shrugs and puts everything back in the box and shuts it again, this time putting it on her bedside table. After, she heads into the washroom to shower, telling herself she’d text Uma about the contents of the box afterwords.

_-Spa-cation-_

“I can’t believe Mal’s getting off scott free.” Audrey says after Uma told her about Mal getting out of detention. The pair were getting Mani-pedis, it took a lot of restraint from Uma to not yank her limbs in with the people touching them so.

“Tell me about it. When I tried to complain to Fairy Godmother, she just told me to look at it from her point of view and that holding grudges was not something done in Auradon.”

“Uh, has she met my Grammy? She holds grudges more than anyone.”

Uma raises an eyebrow at Audrey, “Don’t you love your grammy?”

“Oh, I do. But that doesn’t mean she won’t hold a grudge for a century.”

“Fair. So, were you serious earlier?” Uma asks, when Audrey raises an eyebrow at her, she expands, “about me meeting your fairy godmothers. You mentioned it in the car ride.”

“Of course. I was angry at the coronation, but, honestly, you’re just as much of a victim of Mal’s magic as me, and Ben. And, I wasn’t wrong, you’re a good person. Someone I would like to be friends with.”

“Thanks. You’re also pretty badass, definitely someone I would want in my crew.”

“Thank you.”

“This might be awkward, but how would you feel about me asking out Ben?”

There was a pregnant pause before Audrey responded, and Uma thought she had gone too far. “Aren’t you dating Harry?”

“We’re polyamorous.”

“O-kay. I, suppose I wouldn’t mind. I’m pretty sure he was going to break up with soon enough, even before Mal came into the picture. He was getting disinterested, didn’t listen to me. Probably didn’t love me anymore.” Audrey explains, sounding tired and a tad upset, “But, he is still my friend, so, if you hurt him, I will eviscerate and destroy you.” Audrey threatens.

Uma smiled in response, “I knew there was a reason I liked you. You would’ve been an awesome villain.”

“Thank you?” Audrey says, uncertain if that was a compliment.

“So are you and Chad still a thing? Because, I don’t know what you’d see in him.”

“Hey!” Audrey says, offended, before continuing, “We’re not still a thing, but he’s my friend. I broke up with him after the coronation. I only started dating him because Ben hurt and publically humiliated me, so I figured immediately getting a new boyfriend would make it better. It did not. I don’t even like Chad like that. But, apparently, he really likes me like that, because he hasn’t stopped calling or texting me since we left.”

“Eesh, did you respond?”

“Yes, to tell him to stop and leave me alone. He has not.”

“I can ask Harry to put the fear of the Hook in him.”

“No, he’ll get over it. He’s just freaking out because I left right after breaking up with him. I’m sure he’ll stop calling and texting me by tomorrow.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“...Call Harry and have him ask Chad to stop?”

“Deal.” Uma says, and then notices that her hands are no longer being touched, and pulls them up to see for herself. “Damn, you’re right about this manicure thing. They look cruel.” Uma says, looking at her teal nails with glee.

“Obviously. I’m always right.”

“Do you know what my biggest regret is?”

“Not being friends with me sooner?”

Uma raises an eyebrow at Audrey and rolls her eyes before answering, “Not punching Mal before we left. By the time we get back, everyone will expect me to be over it.”

“Ugh, you’re so right. But, as Benny-boo says, a life of non-reaction is better than one of over-reaction.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not entirely sure. Just know that he told me that when I got upset with some disrespect some peasants showed me. He told me that I shouldn’t react. Keep calm and find the root, find why they’re being the way they are and understand.”

“Wise advice. Probably knock anyone who takes him hostage off their game if he doesn’t react to anything.”

“I suppose.”

The pair are silent for a moment before Uma breaks it, “I still want to punch Mal though.”

“Agreed. But that is too un-princess like for me. Grammy will have an anuerysm if I punch Mal.”

“I can punch her twice? One for me, one for you?”

“Wouldn’t be the same. “

“I guess.” The pair sat in silence until Audrey’s phone went off. 

“Oh, Benny-Boos requesting a video call.” Audrey says leaning her upper body closer to Uma, which the other girl mirrors, as she answers, “Hi, Benny-boo!”

 _“Hi Audrey, Hi Uma. Uh, how’s the vacation going?”_ Ben asks, sounding a bit awkward. Uma and Audrey share a glance before Uma asks,

“What’s going on? You haven’t been taken hostage, right?”

_“No! No, I’m perfectly fine. I- it’s just, Harry just asked me out. On a date.”_

“What, did you text him my approval?” Audrey asks Uma.

“Nope. Harry’s just been wanting to ask out beastling for a while. Guess he couldn’t wait.”

 _“How are you two so calm about this?”_ Ben asks, seemingly teetering on the edge of a freak out.

“Why are you freaking out?” Audrey asks.

_“I-I- Wha- What do I do?”_

“Did you accept?” Uma asks and Ben nods in response, “Did you set a date and time?”

 _“Yeah, in two hours. What do I wear? He wanted to plan the whole thing, what do I expect? Where-”_ Ben was entirely panicking.

Uma cuts the panicking King off, “How are you worse than Mal? Seriously, she needed me to do practically everything for her for your date. Did he tell you anything else aside from the time?”

 _“Uh, he said we’d be sweating and screaming? Well, he said I would be. But, I wasn’t sure if that was a pick up line.”_ Ben explains and Audrey gets an excited look on her face.

“Just a moment Benny-boo” She says before muting the call. “There’s a carnival in town, with a bunch of crazy rides. Harry was asking me about it before we left, I didn’t really think anything of it, but…” Audrey trails off, a smile on her face.

“He’s been planning this for a while. We can’t tell Ben the surprise.”

“Obvi.” Audrey says, before unmuting the call, “Okay, Benny-Boo, take us to your closet.” she orders. And they then spend a good hour deciding on Ben’s outfit for his and Harry’s date, even as they go through the rest of the spa.

 _“You sure I look good?”_ Ben asks, looking unsure of himself in the mirror.

“You look amazing, Ben. Harry will love it. Trust me.” Uma says.

_“Didn’t you say it was my funeral for trusting you?”_

“When it comes to Harry, you can just trust me. I know exactly what he likes. Good luck and keep up posted!” Uma says before hanging up on Ben.

“Can’t believe the boys are going on a date.” Audrey says, sounding happy.

“I know, didn’t think Harry had it in him to do so and not panic.”

“So he shocked you by doing just that?”

“No. I texted Gil, Harry’s been freaking out for literally the entire day.” Uma deadpans, and Audrey starts laughing.

“They’re such dorks.”

“I know. But they’re my dorks.”

“Aw.” Audrey coos, “Anyways, we’re done here, time to go visit my fairy Godmothers! Come on!” Audrey says, grabbing Uma’s hand and pulling her out to the carriage that replaced their car, Ove in Uma’s arms. “This will be so much fun!”

“Sure.” Uma drawls before saying, “Hey, maybe I could teach you how to fight Isle style at some point on this Vacation. Or at the very least, properly throw a punch.” 

“You assume I can’t throw a punch?”

“Go on then, show me your form.” Uma says and Audrey makes a fist and punches the air. “That’s great form, if you want to break your thumb on Mal’s face.” Uma says, grabbing Audrey’s hand and unfolding her thumb from her fist. “Keep it on the outside, and don’t punch with your fingers, but with your knuckles. Less chance of broken bones.” Uma explains and then shifts in her seat in the carriage, holding up a hand and putting Ove on the seat. “Punch it.” Uma says, tapping her open hand. Audrey does so and Uma cushions the punch. “Too much fingers. Only hit my hand with your knuckles, those are strongest and will do the most damage.” Uma advises and has Audrey hit her hand again. “Good, You’ll be able to properly punch Mal in no time.” Uma praises and Audrey laughs a little bit.

“Yeah, and maybe you can teach me some other moves. Because you are completely right, I have no idea how to fight.”

“Obviously, you’re a princess who has bodyguards, why would you need to fight?”

“Yeah.” Audrey says, trailing off into silence for a couple of minutes before saying, quietly, “Thank you”

Uma scrunchies her brows in confusion, “For what?”

“For coming with me. For validating my feelings. For, being my friend. Even if you’re going to date my ex.”

“Hey, I asked if you’d care.”

“You did. And, I’ll be happy for you, because you’re going to make each other happy.”

“What about you?” Uma asks, and expands when she just confused silence in response, “Are you happy being single?”

“I… don’t know. I’ve never been single before.”

“What?”

“Me and Ben have been together since we were babies. This is the first time in my life that I’ve been single.”

“Holy fuck. We need to have a party.”

“What?”

“A party. When we get back, we’ll drag all our girlfriends out for a party. It’ll be great. You can celebrate being single.”

“Is that really a thing to celebrate? Being undesirable for a boy?”

“Being free to be you without worry of a boyfriend’s opinions. That’s what worth celebrating.”

“Thank you.” Audrey says, pulling Uma in for a one-armed hug, “Who I’m dating has always been important to my family.”

“Well, dating is bullshit. Sometimes, single is best.”

“Haven’t you and Harry been dating forever?”

“No. We’ve been friends forever, but we’ve only been dating for a year or so. Sometimes, you just need alone time, a time without a boyfriend or a girlfriend.”

“Oh my god, I think my parents would hate it more if I came home with a girlfriend, than if I came home single.”

“Really? Isn’t Auradon the place of acceptance and shit?”

“Maybe? My family, not so much, though. You have no idea how often I’ve been reprimanded for not being able to hold onto Ben in the past week, when my mother ‘was able to hold onto a prince in her sleep’.”

“That’s just bullshit. You mom didn’t hold onto a prince. He showed up and kissed a corpse.”

“Uma!” Audrey exclaims, sounding offended.

“What?”

“That’s Snow White.” Audrey explains, chuckling a bit.

“Oh! Whatever.” Uma scoffs, “He kissed a sleeping woman. Without her consent. Your dad is kind of weird.”

Audrey touches her collar, looking offended but it died a minute later, “My dad is a bit weird. But not for kissing my mom, he’s weird in the way King Eric is weird. Just, erratic.”

“I stand by most of the you Auradonians parents are weird. Like, Chad’s dad couldn’t remember what Cinderella looked like?”

“Hey! He has Prosopagnosia. He can’t recognize anyone’s face.”

“Okay, that entire story makes sense now. But, Eric takes Ariel to his castle and helps her despite believing shes not the one he’s looking for, then almost marries my mother, my mother turns into a giant cecalia, he drives a ship into her, then marries Ariel, and no one in the Kingdom questions any of it?”

“You’ve met King Eric. The man does crazy things.” 

“Oh fuck!” Uma exclaims, just remembering something.

“What?”

“I was going to have contest with him. About whether I could scandalize him with words. Dammit, I forgot.”

“You can do it once we get back. Also, can I ask why Ove?” Audrey asks, looking down at the sleeping puppy.

“Oh, Vanora and I got a bunch of baby naming books from the library-”

“Oh, that explains the rumor-”

“And in one, we found Ove, which is danish and means, full of terror. Figured that’s a good name for a pup ready to throw down at a moments notice.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure if Ove hadn’t been frozen, she would’ve taken down Maleficent.”

“Oh, without a doubt. Little girl was ready to rip king Beast to shreds, she’d be 110% down for ripping Maleficent to shreds. Also, what rumour had to do with baby books?”

“Oh, before we left, some guys were saying you or Vanora were pregnant. Most likely you, because Isle.”

“What?”

“I didn’t believe it! I thought it was preposterous, as if you’d be pregnant.”

“Wait, what’s wrong with me being pregnant?”

“Uma, “ Audrey starts, putting a hand on her arm, “You wouldn’t of fought Maleficent if you were pregnant. Or done half the shit you did. You care too much.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong, but I would like to know who the idiots who thought me or Vanora were pregnant are. For, educational, purposes.”

“...I’m not going to tell you who the people are,” Audrey says while texting, “How can we be sure you’ll remember?” She add when Uma’s phone buzzes with an incoming message. Upon opening it, she sees Audrey had texted her a few names.

“You make a very good point. How do you think Ben and Harry’s date is going?” Uma asks while texting.

“I hope it’s going well.”

“Does Harry puking in a trashcan count as good?” Uma asks and Audrey leans over to see her phone. There’s a picture of Harry bent over a trashcan. A text below it read, ‘We went on the tilt-a-whirl. He ate a hotdog right before.’

“That boy is an idiot.”

“Eh, he’s my idiot.” Uma says and then her phone pings with a new message. This time it’s a video. When she hits play Ben is on a ride and screaming loud enough enough to wake Ove, even with Uma’s volume turned down quite a bit. The video ends with Harry saying, ‘Told ya he’d be screaming.’

“Your idiot is a dork.” Audrey says, and another photo shows up, this one of a very sweaty Ben with the caption, ‘Told ya he’d been sweating.’

“Such a dork. I can’t wait to be back with them.”

“I feel kind of bad for taking you away from them.”

“Nah, I would’ve down some serious damage to Mal if I was still there by now. Besides, I’m happy to spend time with a friend. The boys can live without me for- how long is this vacation?”

“I was thinking a couple of months.”

“Well, so long as i keep up communication with Harry, we don’t need to worry about him going goth.”

“ ‘Going goth’?“ Audrey repeats.

“Yeah, when we were eleven, I didn’t speak to or see him for six months, he had black hair, entirely black outfit, and so much eyeliner.”

“He still has a lot of eyeliner.”

“But he’s wearing color. That’s the good thing.”

“I suppose. Who taught him how to do eyeliner? Because, its honestly, not bad.”

“I think his mom? Or maybe his dad?”

“Mm, wouldn’t that be nice, learning something from your parents, not from servants.”

“Yeah, learning something from someone who actually cares for you is pretty surreal.”

“I bet.” Auidrey says, before her eyes look out to the forrest around them, “do you want to play a game?”

“Sure?” Uma says, confused about the subject change.

“Okay, I used to play this with my nanny whenever we went to see my Fairy Godmothers. Look out to the forrest, what do you see?”

“Trees?”

“No, look, not with your eyes. With your ears, your heart, your magic. What do you see?” Audrey asks once more.

Uma takes a moment to respond, “So many animals, its so loud. But so silent. There are so many animals around us.”

“See?”

“How is this a game?”

“It distracts us from the hours long journey we’re on?”

“Fair. Your turn.” And the pair played the game up until they reached Audrey’s Fairy Godmothers cottage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Few things;
> 
> 1) I might've completely forgotten Ursula even gave Uma anything at the beginning until someone commented on it, and by then I had already finished the Maleficent fight, so it shows up here. 
> 
> 2)I know we all wanted Mal to get her comeuppance but, it didn't work out with the story. Auradon is too lax with those it considers good, and Mal giving a BS excuse and making the Fairy Godmother feel sympathy for her is 100% what she would do to get out of trouble.
> 
> 3) Has that ever happened to anyone else? You look at baby-naming books or a website and you get these looks from either family or friends or complete strangers that you know is just them going 'are you pregnant?'.
> 
> 4) I feel like Audrey would drift to Uma pretty quickly, I mean, in D3 she accepts mal & Ben's bullshit apology with a look on her face that tells you this is the first time anyone has actually given two shits about her emotions, so with Uma doing that now, i feel like it wouldn't be a stretch for Audrey to latch onto her as a friend. 
> 
> 5) IDK where Ben and Harry's date came from, it just showed up. 
> 
> 6) I might write more of Uma and Audrey's Spa-cation adventures, idk, maybe.
> 
> Thank you all for bearing with me throughout these weeks. Thank you for all the love you've given me.
> 
> I hate to say that i'm not entirely happy with this, but I can't do anything to make it better.
> 
> 7) ...Yes there will be more. Probably just little snippets into Audrey and Uma's vacation but, there will be more.


End file.
